Regional development

Regional development is a public sector task in terms of the coordination, administration and implementation of EU cohesion policies. It is also an element of intermediary service between the state, the market, and civil society and the bottom-up oriented organisation of an autonomous self-governance in the context of regional development. The quality and duration of these processes varies and is usually directed through governance arrangements.

As university we attend this process of regional development on all spatial levels based on research, through procedural guidance and as consultants. We rely on a broad range of methods: Statistical methods, qualitative methods of empirical social research, methods of evaluation and cartographic appraisals are all equally relevant in our research. 

Thematically we currently focus on the context of the development of urban and rural regions and their interactions, European cross border regions and large conservation areas. Specifically we deal with socio-political questions regarding the direction of spatially relevant processes on the basis of concurrent dynamics, triggered by demographic change, gender sensitive development or regional labour markets.