If commentators have already stated a profound crisis in the provision of rural social and cultural infrastructures before the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation is even more tense after curfews have resulted in further restrictions on services. To meet these challenges, the German government and most of the federal states have launched policies and temporary funding programmes to strengthen socio-cultural infrastructures especially in rural areas. These schemes usually provide support to promote the most ‘creative ideas’ for a vibrant local culture, to stimulate multi-actor networks and to initiate ‘progressive’ reorganisation of remaining infrastructures. In contrast to such project-based, competitive and impermanent approaches to cultural governance the establishment of new amenities is a rarity. However, as individual examples of concert halls and art museums show, there are recent efforts to offer cultural services through flagship facilities also in rural areas.

Using the example of the TauberPhilharmonie, a concert and event hall that opened in 2019 in the small rural town of Weikersheim in southern Germany, we aim at mapping and evaluating shifting discourses and networks of establishing and running such infrastructures. We specifically focus on:

• Location choice and funding of cultural lighthouse projects in rural areas
• The insitution's regional socio-cultural impact
• Dimensions of embeddesness

Talks

Mager, C.; Wagner, M. (2023): Sicherung der Daseinsvorsorge durch kulturelle Großprojekte? Kulturelle Entwicklung im ländlichen Raum am Beispiel der TauberPhilharmonie. Deutscher Kongress für Geographie 2023 "Planetary Futures", Frankfurt am Main, 22. September 2023. 

Mager, C.; Wagner, M. (2023): Rural cultural development through flagship infrastructure? The TauberPhilharmonie concert hall and the provision of public services of general interest. „Rural Geographies in Transition“, 3rd European Rural Geographies Conference, Groningen (Niederlande), 28. Juni 2023.

Mager, C.; Wagner, M. (2021): Geographies of everyday cultural (in)justice: mapping cultural infrastructures in rural areas in Germany. Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), Seattle (USA), Online-Konferenz, 07. bis 11. April 2021.

In the last 40 years, alternative cultural institutions have been founded in many cities as a local response to the social and urban crises of the post-war years. Originally started as grassroots movements, these institutions now play an important role in the local cultural landscape of many cities. The infrastructures provide accessible and permanent spaces for conviviality, cultural empowerment and the negotiation of community concerns.

Using the example of the Karlstorbahnhof, a socio-cultural centre in the of Heidelberg, Germany, we seek to understand the evolving ways political and social relations are formed, negotiated and challenged through cultural infrastructures. By analysing newspaper coverage, policy documents and interviews with stakeholders from urban planning, city administration, community work and resident populations, we map and evaluate shifting planning discourses and forms of embeddedness in the processes of de- and re-localisation.

Publications

Mager, C.; Wagner, M. (2022): A "motor" for the neighbourhood? Urban planning and the challenges of relocating cultural infrastructures. In: Urban Planning 7(4), 470-485.

Mager, C. (2000): Kommunale Kulturpolitik und lokale Kulturarbeit. Dynamik und Entwicklungen des soziokulturellen Zentrums ‚Karlstorbahnhof‘ in Heidelberg. In: Journal der Heidelberger Geographischen Gesellschaft (HGG-Journal) 15, 164-183.