For the past five years, the IFZO has been researching cultural and social change in the Baltic Sea region, an area characterised by great cultural diversity. We now want to find out more: what are the strengths and weaknesses of the structures underpinning democracy, culture, the landscape and infrastructure?
Our starting point is simple. People, institutions and structures are only as resilient as we enable them to be. In research, this is referred to as resilience. It is precisely these capabilities that we are therefore focusing on.
However, there is no single capability and no single research approach. Our research programme ‘Resilient Baltic Sea Region’ thrives on interdisciplinary collaboration. To this end, we draw on working methods that we have developed in the field of transformation research. We are now applying them to new questions.
Take, for example, how secure do people feel in the face of domestic and foreign policy decisions? And what role does the expansion of security-related infrastructure play? Another example: what impact do EU laws on sustainable development have on the population and the landscape? Such questions can only be answered collectively. Satellite data and digital analyses go hand in hand with political science surveys and the analysis of legal texts.
The IFZO has created its own formats for this collaboration. At the IFZO Days, the sub-projects exchange ideas internally. The IFZO Annual Conference opens up our research to the outside world: to other researchers, but also to policymakers and the wider public. Digital platforms such as Sinnesmeer and the Geoportal help us to make our findings visible and share them across disciplinary boundaries. And through school resources and exhibitions, we bring our research to the wider public in a way that is accessible to all.
On this basis, we – doctoral candidates and project leaders alike – aim to jointly investigate resilience in the Baltic Sea region. We look forward to this and will keep you updated here!
A contribution from the IFZO office