How can we ensure rural areas remain culturally attractive to digital natives?

BMBF project about libraries, digitalisation and cultural education in rural areas

How can rural areas be developed so that they offer a culturally attractive place to live for young people? And how can libraries as a place of culture make a contribution? The project called ‘Libraries, Digitalisation, and Cultural Education in Peripheral Areas: Conditions and Models for the Development of Local Libraries as Culture Space in the Context of Post-digital Youth Culture’ (Bibliotheken, Digitalisierung und kulturelle Bildung in peripheren Räumen: Bedingungen und Modelle zur Entwicklung der Bibliothek als Kulturort im Kontext post-digitaler Jugendkultur“ (BiDiPeri)) at FAU hopes to find answers to these questions.

During the project, researchers at FAU at the Chair of Education with a focus on culture and aesthetic education will be investigating which types of digital cultural education can compensate structural deficits in rural areas so as to counteract rural depopulation by the younger generation.

Studies indicate the potential of libraries in this context. They are the most-visited cultural and educational institutions in Germany, even the smallest of communities have a library and they are social but not commercial places.

‘Cultural education should not depend on where you live,’ says Viktoria Flasche, research associate at the Chair of Education with a focus on culture and aesthetic education. ‘We hope to initiate the development of rural libraries so that they can become places of post-digital learning.’ The project is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Link to the detailed press release at phil.fau.de

Further information:

Prof. Dr. Benjamin Jörissen
Chair of Education with a focus on culture and aesthetic education
benjamin.joerissen@fau.de

Viktoria Flasche
Chair of Education with a focus on culture and aesthetic education
viktoria.flasche@fau.de