"Is everyone moving to the city? Where is the village moving to!"
Prof. Dr. Clemens Renker from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Industrial Engineering was invited to speak on this important topic at the "Schloss Sassanfahrt" education center in the Nuremberg metropolitan region (meaning: place of arrival of the Saxons in 1124).
"Desertification" as in the late Middle Ages, when around 30% of villages in Germany were abandoned, need not be the result of today's rural exodus and influx to "swarm cities".
After presenting the serious to existential challenges facing the approximately 4,600 communities in Germany, Prof. Renker showed possible solutions for the transformation of the "village" life model.
In some cases, complete redesigns are necessary to secure the future:
From the vision to new fields of meaning or strategic fields of action, new revenue mechanisms, effective village value creation relationships to a village culture of attentive and mindful coexistence. Important drivers here are local elites as "doers" whose intrinsic motivation needs to be recognized and released. Cooperation and partnership within a municipality and between villages are further potentials for success. Ultimately, however, the type and quality of a holistic and participatory process of redesigning the "village" as a model of living is a fundamental factor in the success of a sustainable municipality.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Clemens Renker

Faculty of Economics and Industrial Engineering

Email: c.renker(at)hszg.de