Project Details
Projekt
AdaptInfra Subproject 4: Churches, diaconia, and civil society in rural and peripheral areas of eastern Germany. An empirical study of infrastructural adaptation processes since 1989
Applicant
Professor Dr. Tobias Braune-Krickau
Subject Area
Protestant Theology
Term
since 2026
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 547031340
This research project considers church practice as part of civil society infrastructures and examines its adaptation processes in rural and peripheral areas of eastern Germany since 1989. It investigates this topic using empirical, particularly ethnographic, methods and interprets its findings against the backdrop of practical theological theory. The aim is to contribute to a field of practical theology that has only been researched to a limited extent thus far. At the same time, the project is closely linked to the other subprojects of the interdisciplinary research group "Adaptive Infrastructures of Public Services in Rural Peripheral Areas (AdaptInfra)". The term "church practice" is deliberately broad: it encompasses both major Christian denominations as well as other Christian-influenced organizations, regardless of their formal affiliation with the churches. These include, for example, social welfare organizations such as Diakonie and Caritas, denominational kindergartens, schools, and academies in the education sector, and associations dedicated to the preservation of village churches or the cultural revitalization of rural areas. The project assumes that church practice is significantly shaped by its self-positioning within civil society - just as civil society itself is shaped in many areas by the commitment of church actors. In this sense, church practice is examined as an exemplary case of civil society infrastructures - in the context of eastern Germany, which is special for both the churches and civil society. Methodologically, the project follows a mixed-methods approach: quantitative data on the development of church related civil society infrastructures are combined with qualitative interviews and ethnographic case studies. The latter focus on so-called "social places" understood in the sense of Claudia Neu, Berthold Vogel, and Jens Kersten as those local hubs where the infrastructural background networks of civil society become visible and effective. The rural area of Vorpommern is planned as the study region. Key questions include: How have church related civil society infrastructures changed in rural areas of eastern Germany since 1989? Which actors and dynamics shape these developments? And what can be learned from this for a general theory of adaptive infrastructures for public services?
DFG Programme
Research Units
