Project Details
Projekt
AdaptInfra Subproject 3: Adaptation Processes of Security Infrastructures in Peripheral Rural Areas
Applicants
Professor Dr. Stefan Harrendorf; Professorin Dr. Silke Schmidt-Schuchert; Professor Dr. Samuel Tomczyk
Subject Area
Criminology
Term
since 2026
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 547031340
The AdaptInfra subproject 3 will research adaptation processes of security infrastructures in peripheral rural areas. These areas are characterized by different security situations and requirements for security infrastructures. This has implications not only for police emergency response, but also for non-police security, particularly in civil protection and disaster control. In peripheral rural areas, vulnerabilities and challenges for ensuring civil security arise and adaptive infrastructure processes towards a flexible, system-oriented security practice are increasingly necessary. Impairments of trust in the professional actors of the security infrastructures also suggest adaptation processes towards self-organized groups with security tasks (e.g. vigilante groups). These represent an awareness of the population's increased ability to help themselves and their potential for resilience, but at the same time point to the risk of political radicalization. Against the backdrop of the social transformation processes that are having a particularly serious impact in rural regions, subproject 3 is concerned with an analysis of the adaptation processes of the security infrastructure in peripheral rural areas. Accordingly, the central material and personnel characteristics of security infrastructures in peripheral rural areas are examined. In addition, a look is taken at the institutional control options in the face of changing security situations and expectations and the adaptability of the structures. Promising communication strategies and tools for informing and involving the population will be researched. The connection between maladaptations of institutionalized security infrastructures and the development of self-organized groups with security tasks is also examined. Subproject 3 uses a mixed-methods approach retrospectively since 1990 and prospectively for the project period. In two waves of data collection, guided interviews are conducted with experts from police and civil protection institutions, with multipliers (e.g. pastors, mayors, teachers) from four selected case communities in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald as well as with representatives of self-organized groups with security tasks regarding their attitudes, experiences and expectations with regard to the security infrastructure. Secondary analyses of quantitative population surveys on security-relevant indicators and an integrative evaluation of crime, social structure and infrastructure data will as well be carried out. Based on the material, adaptive processes are reconstructed in case studies. Subproject 3 also examines the influences of digitalization on adaptation processes of infrastructures in rural areas as a cross-cutting consortial topic. Further networking will take place primarily with subproject 1, 2, 4 and 5.
DFG Programme
Research Units
