"Design the Future, Together" - Interdisciplinary and intercultural exchange on transformation processes in the Ruhr Metropolis as a basis for comparison of cooperative future design in metropolitan regions
The 2023 Summer Schools on "Comparative Metropolitan Research" take up the new motto of the partner university Tsukuba, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. "Design the Future, Together" is the new challenge in continuation of the previous guiding theme "Imagine the Future". Accordingly, from 24 to 28 July, thirteen Master's students from the Urban and Regional Development Management specialisation analysed and reflected on topics of "governance of transformation" together with nine students from the Division of Policy and Planning Sciences at the University of Tsukuba under the direction of Prof. Dr. Uta Hohn and in close exchange with experts from the field. The focus was on actors and alliances of actors, their understanding of their roles, their visions of the future and strategies, their resources and projects, as well as the spatial effects of their actions in the sense of a cooperative design of equitable, sustainable and resilient urban futures using the potential of digitalisation.
A special guest was Sawako Kon, who had already participated in a Summer School in 2009 and now works at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Tokyo. And during the visit to the Feldherrenviertel in Herne, another participant of the Summer School 2009, Martina Liehr, was available as an expert. Other experts from the field with a connection to the Institute of Geography were, among many others: Prof. Dr. Rolf Heyer, Prof. Dr. Hans-Peter Noll and Dr. Stephan Treuke.
After a three-year interruption due to the Corona pandemic, the tradition of annual summer schools founded in 2005 in cooperation with the University of Tsukuba could thus be continued. The Master's students of the Department of Geography had organised the programme for the Japanese guests in advance and prepared an English-language reader. The "Team of the Day" then led through the respective Summer School day. A large final round with quiz, memory and pitches rounded off the programme on Friday evening in Duisburg's RheinPark, which was structured as follows.
Bochum: Transformation Strategies in a "City of Knowledge and Science
Dortmund: "Innovation from the Neighbourhood" and other actors in the city-wide transformation ecosystem
Emscher Region: Blue-green infrastructures as building blocks and catalysts of sustainability transformation and the special role of the Emschergenossenschaft
Essen: Transformation processes in a former Companytown
Duisburg: Transformation strategies at district level - Ruhrort and Hochfeld
After this extremely work-intensive and at the same time very insightful week, part of the Bochum team is now very much looking forward to the Summer School in the Tokyo metropolitan region under the direction of Prof. Dr. Sayaka Fujii and to seeing the Japanese students again. Five Master's students and two doctoral students from the Department of Geography will take part in the Summer School in Japan from 18 to 23 September together with Prof. Dr. Uta Hohn. Eight Master's students will spend the second part of the Summer School in the Delta metropolis of the Netherlands under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Thomas Feldhoff.
For the Summer School Team Alina Grunwald and Prof. Dr. Uta Hohn
The Summer School 2022 was organised under the central theme: Urban Futures Ruhr - Shaping Transformation Together
As part of the Master's programme in Urban and Regional Development Management, the Department of Geography at the Ruhr University Bochum organised a Summer School on the topic of "Urban Futures Ruhr - Shaping Transformation Together" from 25 to 29 July 2022.
The participants of the Summer School visited urban development projects in the innovation areas of Bochum, Dortmund, New Emscher, Essen and Duisburg and dealt with current trends, strategies, concepts and projects of urban and regional development in the Metropole Ruhr. The aim was to analyse transformation processes in transformation spaces at different scales, from individual projects to neighbourhoods to regions, with a special focus on the interdependencies and development paths, the actors, strategies, concepts and instruments of a "governance of transformation". In the process, future designs and future projects should be examined and critically reflected with regard to their contributions to the design of sustainable and resilient urban futures using the opportunities of digitalisation. The excursions to the respective innovation spaces were designed and carried out by the students themselves and supported by invited experts on site.
Since this module focuses on comparative metropolitan research, the students travelled to the Dutch Delta metropolis in September.
Innovation spaces, topics & contents
Bochum: Inner-city development of Bochum under aspects of strategic development concepts
Dortmund: Urban Futures Ruhr - Dortmund
New Emscher: Effects of urban and regional development projects on sustainable neighbourhood development along the Emscher River
Essen: Green City - Implementation of blue and green infrastructure as a contribution to climate adaptation and a solution for sustainable urban development
Duisburg: Between the Dunes and the Rhine - Actors, Models, Instruments for the Urban Transformation of a Neighbourhood with Special Development Needs Using the Example of Duisburg-Hochfeld
The Summer School 2021 was held under the central theme: Insights into the Ruhr Transformation Laboratory: On the Way to a Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Knowledge Metropolis?
As part of the Master's programme in Urban and Regional Development Management, the Institute of Geography at the Ruhr University Bochum, a Summer School on the topic of "Insights into the Ruhr Transformation Laboratory: On the Way to a Smart, Sustainable and Resilient Knowledge Metropolis?" took place from 26 to 30 July and from 2 to 6 August 2021, divided into two groups. In September, the students first travelled in two different excursion groups to Vienna and the Dutch Delta metropolis.
The Summer School participants then visited urban development projects in the innovation areas of Bochum, Dortmund, Duisburg, Essen and New Emscher and dealt with the strategies, concepts, instruments, procedures, control levels and actor constellations of the "Ruhr Transformation Laboratory". The excursions to the respective innovation spaces were designed and carried out by the students themselves and supported by invited experts on site.
Innovation spaces, topics & contents
Bochum: Bochum 4.0 (?): The transformation process of the city of Bochum from a science city to a knowledge city
Dortmund: Transformation Lab Dortmund
Essen: Science-oriented urban development using the example of the city of Essen
Duisburg: Duisburg between problem Neighbourhoods and Smart City
New Emscher: Gelsenkirchen: An insight into various transformation processes for successful urban development
Neue Emscher: (InnovationCity) Bottrop – Where is the innovation?
New friendships, thought-provoking impulses and profound insights brought the Summer School 2018 in the Tokyo and Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan regions
We met great people and made deep friendships during the two weeks. My horizon was shown and broadened at the same time. I gained a lot of new knowledge and yet became even more curious". According to this quote from a participant, this year's offer in the module "Comparative Metropolitan Studies" by the Chair of Urban and Metropolitan Studies (headed by Prof. Dr. Uta Hohn) in cooperation with the Division of Policy and Planning Sciences at the University of Tsukuba (headed by Prof. Dr. Sayaka Fujii and Prof. Dr. Tomokazu Arita) was a complete success. Eleven students from the Department of Geography at the Ruhr University Bochum and 17 students from the University of Tsukuba took part in the two joint summer schools in the metropolitan regions of Tokyo and Rhine-Ruhr and dealt with the change of living environments in the context of metropolitan transformation processes from a comparative perspective.
After the preparatory seminar, the RUB students first travelled to Tokyo from 21.07. to 29.07.2018 and got to know their Japanese fellow students there. After an introduction, the excursion programme began on the first day. Following the main theme, the students dealt with the renewal concepts for the large housing estate Takashimadaira in the former suburban area of the metropolis, with the cautious and participatory neighbourhood development as well as large-scale urban redevelopment projects in the disaster-prone timber shack belt of Tokyo, with high-priced housing enriched with diverse service packages in the smart city of Kashiwa-no-ha and demographic change in a peripherally located garden-city-like single-family housing estate of the 1980s. The focus was also on Japanese planning culture. The focus was on instruments and procedures of negotiated planning and on a linkage policy in the context of multifunctional projects of the Urban Renaissance in the central area of Tokyo and on the waterfront. Input from the students, intensive field work and urban trails in Japanese-German teams, expert discussions and joint discussion groups provided well-founded insights and also made the programme very varied from a methodological point of view. In addition, intercultural encounters in relation to everyday topics were not neglected in the evening leisure activities. At the end of the Summer School in the Tokyo metropolitan region, a workshop took place at Tsukuba University. An approaching typhoon caused the event to "fall through", at least partially, but fortunately the second Summer School was still to come with enough time for joint reflection.
The reunion with the Japanese fellow students then took place in the Rhine-Ruhr region from 09.09. to 16.09.2018. The GI students were now also able to demonstrate their specialist and spatial knowledge and offered their Japanese guests an equally varied programme. This included an excursion to the role of housing in the knowledge-based urban development of Bochum, exploring the transformation processes in the new Emscher Valley by coach, looking at green and blue infrastructure as instruments for improving the quality of housing and life in Essen, intensive field work in the "Arrival District" of Dortmund's Nordstadt and a day in the growing Global City of Düsseldorf. Without any weather-related restrictions, the concluding workshop provided the desired gain in knowledge, which the students also consider valuable for their professional future: "I think that I can use the newly gained knowledge well in my future professional activities".
7th International Summer School "Transformation of Urban Landscapes in the Metropolitan Region Rhine-Ruhr" under the direction of Prof. Dr. Uta Hohn
For the seventh time, this year's Summer School under the direction of Prof. Dr. Uta Hohn took place together with Chinese and Japanese students within the framework of the Master's programme in Urban and Regional Development Management at the Institute of Geography.
From 1 to 12 August 2011, the students visited urban development projects in the Rhine-Ruhr region on the topic of "Transformation of Urban Landscapes" and dealt with strategies, concepts, instruments, procedures, levels of control and actor constellations of metropolitan urban and regional development. Supported by local experts, the Bochum students conveyed to their fellow students from the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University Shanghai and the Department of Urban Planning at the University of Tsukuba the structural change towards a hybrid, post-industrial, urban cultural landscape. The collected impressions and insights were reflected upon in a final discussion at the end of each day. In addition, the students conducted field studies in five study areas in Gelsenkirchen in international and interdisciplinary small groups, the results of which were presented during the final event. The main focus here was on teamwork and the exchange of knowledge and experiences from their own home countries.
6th International Summer School and Autumn School "Transformation of Urban Landscapes in the Metropolitan Regions Rhine-Ruhr and Shanghai " under the direction of Prof. Dr. Uta Hohn
The RUB students at this year's Summer School introduced the metropolitan area of the Ruhr to student visitors from the Kansai region (Japan) and Shangai (People's Republic of China) under the following focal points. Planning processes and governance cultures were worked out, which the German students should be able to use as a basis for further comparative research at the Autumn School.
Summer School
Autumn School
Among the above-mentioned focal points, the students were presented with a completely different picture during their visit to China:
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Last update: Aug 10, 2023
