At the 18th Future Forum for Rural Development: LAND.KANN.VIELFALT - Mach mit!, the Master's degree course in Management of Social Change supported the specialist forum "Shaping structural change in Lusatia in a gender-equitable way". VProf. Julia Gabler travelled to Berlin with students to discuss with director Annette Dorothea Weber, Lisa Temesvári-Alamer from Bündnis Gleichstellung Lausitz and Franziska Rauchut from the Bundesstiftung Gleichstellung how structural change processes can be made fairer and what challenges characterize rural life in Lusatia.
The artistic film"Es kommt drauf an das Hoffen zu lernen" opens the expert forum and broadens the perspective from the labor market of the coal industry to the realities of life in the places affected by devastation, the generations and communities additionally challenged by emigration. Gender-blind measures of participation, job compensation and infrastructure development lead to questions of equitable participation, informed data collection and political responsibility to make data-based decisions.
Annemarie Grünert, a student of the Master's degree in Management of Social Change, emphasizes three points: without reproduction there is no production, i.e. caring relationships and caring are central for all genders and generations, even in the industrial region. A father-friendly work culture would be a necessary change of perspective in order to further develop gender-equitable structures in work organizations and to emphasize the attractiveness of the region. Nevertheless, structural change creates uncertainties and new instabilities that cannot be avoided. However, it is also a window of opportunity to collect examples of what works and new perspectives and to correct structures.