AdaptInfra Subproject 1: Archetypes of infrastructure adaptation in rural areas – modeling and synthesis of complex dynamic socio-technical systems

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Volker Beckmann
• Subject Area: Human Geography ; Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Sociology ; Economic Policy, Applied Economics
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 547031340

Public service infrastructures in rural and peripheral areas face major challenges due to a variety of change processes, including demographic change, and are predominantly characterized by restructuring processes. In many areas, innovative solutions are also being sought to counteract the loss of infrastructure. Subproject 1 of the AdaptInfra research group aims to conduct a comparative analysis of infrastructures in rural and peripheral areas in order to better understand both prevailing and innovative adaptation processes. Subproject 1 primarily undertakes the task of synthesizing the analyses of individual infrastructures in subprojects 2-8 and chooses the perspective of the archetype approach. This approach enables an analysis with a medium level of abstraction, in which several recurring patterns of interaction between system elements (archetypes) are included in the analysis as equally important. The archetype approach has been conceptually refined in recent years and can be implemented using a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods. The following research questions will be addressed: 1: Which archetypes of prevalent adaptation paths that have already been completed can be identified using trajectories and system dynamic models? 2: Which archetypes of innovative infrastructure adaptations in rural-peripheral areas can be extracted, and which system dynamic processes characterize them? 3: Which scenarios for future, alternative infrastructure developments can be designed based on the analyzed archetypes of prevalent and innovative adaptations? To best represent the mixed methods primarily used in AdaptInfra, methods for integrating qualitative and quantitative data are applied, and the system dynamic approaches embedded in the AdaptInfra concept are further developed. For research question 1, qualitative system models for the infrastructures under study will be developed collaboratively with other projects and system archetypes will be identified. This is combined with an analysis of quantitative time series data on the infrastructure condition using the method of dynamic time warping to identify archetypes of prevailing infrastructure adaptations. For research question 2, case studies of innovative infrastructure adaptations from AdaptInfra and from case studies worldwide are systematized, examined with regard to their systemic structure, and summarized into a set of archetypes of innovative infrastructure adaptations. Research question 3 uses the resulting systemic understanding of prevailing and innovative adaptations to develop future scenarios for alternative infrastructure developments and their conditions.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 5893: Adaptation processes of infrastructures for services of general interest in rural peripheral areas (Adaptlnfra)