Experimenting for long-term transformation. Key insidhts into 20 years of German pilot scheme for innovative rural public service and infrastructure provision

Alistair Adam Hernández,Carolin Schneider

doi:10.7163/eu21.2021.41.5

Alistair Adam Hernández, Carolin Schneider

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7163/eu21.2021.41.5

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Abstract

In a context of highly heterogeneous development prospects for rural areas in the German Federal Republic, maintaining public services and infrastructure in peripheral locations is facing major challenges. Since the 1990s, a number of nationwide and publicly-funded pilot schemes have experimented with innovative approaches for the long-term transformation of the way public services and infrastructure are provided in the countryside. Nevertheless, the continuity of these approaches often turns out to be problematic. This paper analyses a series of pilot schemes as instruments for territorial development and presents new findings at multiple levels for enhancing their performance.

Highlights

The European model of a society based on solidarity is being dramatically put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been ongoing since 2020 (Schorn, Franz, Gruber & Humer, 2021)
In view of existing economic and demographic forecasts, socio-spatial polarisation in the Federal Republic of Germany will continue to increase in the coming decades
This is associated with well-researched challenges for the safeguarding of rural public services and infrastructure

Summary

Introduction

The European model of a society based on solidarity is being dramatically put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been ongoing since 2020 (Schorn, Franz, Gruber & Humer, 2021). But not exclusively, the provision and maintenance of public health services serve here as a meaningful indicator of the capacity of European states to provide for the well-being of their citizens. In 1984, the German Federal Constitutional Court stated that Daseinsvorsorge is understood as a public task that ‘citizens require of necessity in order to ensure a dignified existence’ (GFCC, 1984). This opinion illustrates right away the difficulties in fully grasping the scope of the topic and field of action of public services and infrastructure

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