Publications
Sozial-ökologische Mobilitäts- und Transformationsforschung in Deutschland. Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme der Forschungsagenda Nachhaltige Urbane Mobilität
ILS researcher Thomas Klinger, together with other colleagues (Jutta Deffner, Martin Lanzendorf, Katharina Manderscheid, Henrike Rau, Lisa Ruhrort), published an article in the GAIA – Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society. Since 2017, the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (then BMBF, since 2025 BMFTR) has been supporting transformative transdisciplinary research with its Sustainable Urban Mobility research agenda. The agenda aims to advance systemic mobility research for the social-ecological transformation of the mobility system. This article systematically reviews projects funded between 2017 and 2025. The results show that the agenda has successfully supported many new projects that meet the goals of the research agenda. However, some research areas remain that have not yet been adequately addressed, while new challenges have also emerged over the past ten years. Opportunities to transfer new practices to other locations and institutions, and to scale them up, have yet to be realized. 👉 https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.35.S1.12. Further current selected papers can be found here.
Verkehrs- und Mobilitätsgerechtigkeit als theoretisch-konzeptionelle Grundlage für die Analyse von Erreichbarkeiten
Increasing discrimination, rising poverty, an ageing society: Whether people can reach their everyday destinations is increasingly becoming a question of social justice. Particularly in peripheral rural areas, it becomes clear that even existing transport services do not automatically enable social participation. How, then, can accessibility planning be more consistently aligned with the principles of transport and mobility justice? Our ILS researchers Florian Ahlmeyer and Sören Groth explore this question in their new research article published in Geographica Helvetica. They discuss how international approaches to transport and mobility justice can enrich accessibility planning and complement the spatial planning principle of public service provision (Daseinsvorsorge). 👉 https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-81-567-2026. Further current selected papers can be found here.
TIME/LESS. Sensing, Planning, Designing in Complex Cities and Regions
ILS researcher Stefano Cozzolino, together with Christian Lamker from the University of Groningen and Fabio Bayro Kaiser from the RWTH Aachen University, published a special issue of ‘Transactions’. Time is a crucial yet often underexplored dimension of spatial planning. This special issue followed up a 2024 conference in Aachen, organised by the AESOP Thematic Group ‘Planning and Complexity’, and brings together perspectives that connect time and complexity as fundamental dimensions of urban change and planning. Its central contribution is to show how engaging explicitly with temporal dynamics can enrich complexity-informed planning, particularly under conditions of uncertainty and non-linearity. The issue explore this topic through three interconnected dimensions: sensing, planning, and designing. https://doi.org/10.24306/TrAESOP.2026.02.002. Further current selected papers can be found here.
Towards regional land-use management: the design process of policy instruments for collective action
ILS researchers Angelika Münter and Peter Stroms-van der Vlugt, together with colleagues from TU Dortmund University, have published an article in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning. Drawing on the case of the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg/Ahrweiler region, it examines how shared narratives shape the design of inter-municipal policy instruments for sustainable land-use management. Building on theories of collaborative governance, the paper shows that collaboratively designed soft policy instruments, such as a regional density concept, establish a shared knowledge base and enable more evidence-informed discussion of planning conflicts. They create opportunities to coordinate responses to the tension between housing provision and reducing land take across the region. However, inter-municipal competition, a lack of binding commitments and reliance on project-based funding constrain implementation, which remains dependent on voluntary local ratification. Without institutionalized regional capacities and mechanisms for sharing costs and benefits, jointly developed knowledge does not automatically translate into collective action. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908X.2026.2740012. Further current selected papers can be found here.
Different measures, different vulnerabilities: A fine-scale spatial analysis of expenditure-based and multidimensional energy poverty in Dortmund, Germany
ILS researchers Hannaneh Jilanialshafty, Shaojuan Xu, and Bastian Heider, together with Frank Othengrafen (TU Dortmund University), have published an article in the journal ‘Energy Research & Social Science’. The article examines how different methods of measuring energy poverty influence which households and areas are identified as particularly vulnerable. Using Dortmund as a case study, the article compares three expenditure-based measurement methods with a multidimensional Energy Poverty Index. These findings show that measurement choice shapes not only where energy poverty is identified, but also which forms of vulnerability become visible to policy. Effective mitigation therefore requires differentiated, place-sensitive policies that integrate financial, social, housing, energy-use, and energy-system dimensions of vulnerability. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2026.104979. Further current selected papers can be found here.
Remote working and sustainable commuting across socio-spatial contexts: Interactions of distance, time and workplace accessibility
ILS researchers from the research group “mobilities and space” published an article in the ‘Journal of Transport Geography’. This study examines how remote working influences commuting across socio-spatial contexts, focusing on its interaction with commuting distance, travel time and the use of sustainable transport modes. The findings show the importance of understanding how remote working reshapes the relationship between working conditions and mobility to support the transition towards sustainable mobility. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2026.104846. Further current selected papers can be found here.
Does High-speed rail influence the location decisions of knowledge-intensive firms in Germany?
Manuel Weiß, a former ILS researcher, and Angelika Münter, an ILS researcher, have published an article in the journal ‘Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie’ together with Johannes Moser, Fabian Wenner, and Alain Thierstein. The paper highlights that good connections to high-speed rail services alone do not make areas around railway stations attractive locations for knowledge-intensive firms. The key factor is the interplay between multimodal accessibility and a diverse range of urban qualities. The paper was produced as part of the DFG project ‘Brain Train? High-Speed Rail Stations as Focal Points of the Knowledge Economy’. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.70106. Further current selected papers can be found here.
Beyond the core: residential distribution and growth of work-from-home-capable employment in German city-regions
ILS researcher Kati Volgmann, together with Anna Growe from the University of Kassel, has published an article in the journal “Regional Studies, Regional Science”. The normalisation of working from home (WFH), understood as a home-based form of remote work, is associated with changing residential patterns within metropolitan regions, yet its spatial implications remain insufficiently understood. This paper examines the residential distribution of occupations with high-WFH-capacity across German city-regions from 2012 to 2023 using a combination of cluster analysis and multivariate regression modelling. Overall, the findings suggest that WFH-capacity does not dissolve existing metropolitan structures, but remains embedded in them in selective ways. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2026.2722825. Further current selected papers can be found here.
Learning from real-world conditions to advance green care for mental health equity in the Global North: protocol for a transdisciplinary multi-scalar project
ILS researchers Noriko Otsuka and Kathrin Specht, together with other colleagues, have published an article in the journal ‘BMJ Open’. This is the first general protocol paper of the project ‘GreenMe’ and examines the extent to which Green Care—that is, the use of nature in everyday life, nature-based health promotion, and nature-based therapy—can contribute to improving mental health and well-being. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-114034. Further current selected papers can be found here.
Partizipative Netzwerkanalyse eines urbanen Ernährungssystems: Das Beispiel der Stadt Dortmund
ILS researcher Melissa Leimkühler, together with other colleagues from the research group ‘Spatial Planning and Urban Design’, has published an article in the journal “STANDORT Journal of Applied Geography”. Increasing urbanisation is exacerbating the challenges of sustainable food supply, as cities depend on external resources and local farmland is limited. The physical proximity of diverse actors in urban areas opens up potential solutions, such as short supply chains and regional supply models. The article examines the network of Dortmund’s food system in the year 2025 using social network analysis to identify actors, collaborations, and key needs. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00548-026-01062-3. Further current selected papers can be found here.
