Municipal Transformative Communities for Local Economies Beyond Growth

• Applicant: Dr. Benedikt Schmid
• Subject Area: Human Geography
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 528684772

MUTUAL aims to provide novel theoretical and empirical insights into the ways in which coactions and collaborations of formal-institutional and non-institutional actors and groups can reduce growth dependencies at the municipal scale. The project is grounded on insights into the increasing ambivalence of economic growth vis-à-vis prosperity and sustainability. It develops a solid conceptual and empirical foundation that contributes to research on more resilient economic configurations that lower the dependence of individuals, organizations, and institutions on market competition, monetary profitability, and financial resources for their subsistence or proper functioning. To provide a firm base for the underexplored terrain of ‘municipal post-growth’, the project advances a conceptual framework that captures the complex socio-spatial dynamics of post-growth-oriented transformations at the municipal scale. The aim of this framework is to understand and specify different forms of socio-spatial relatedness and their interactions in the context of transformations in and beyond place. Building on this theoretical base, the project, furthermore, generates novel empirical insights on what constellations of local economic and municipal governance practices lower growth dependencies (and how). This is done with a strong interest also in what place-specific conditions support or hinder the experimentation with and the establishment of less growth-dependent practice constellations and how these conditions are navigated, negotiated, and modified by different stakeholders. These empirical insights are generated through case study research that is based on qualitative social research methods, including interviewing and ethnographic methods. The project comprises two case studies that are bounded geographically as administratively-bounded municipalities and praxeologically through a principal focus on projects and collaborations with a pro-social and pro-environmental orientation. Both narrowings serve as starting points without putting strict limits on the empirical inquiry. MUTUAL foresees Grenoble (France) and Freiburg (Germany) as case studies, which have emerged as viable options in a scoping study but will be subjected to further testing. For meticulous and timely project delivery, the work program is structured into five interrelated work packages with clearly assigned responsibilities and defined milestones to monitor progress. The work program will be implemented by the PI and a doctoral researcher.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants