Research projects

The reinvention of inner cities, driven by profound functional change, will continue to pose challenges for urban development research in the coming years. Equally demanding is the ongoing transformation of the welfare state from a caring to an activating model, which has negative consequences for poor and marginalized population groups.

The aim of the research project “Marginalized Groups and the Solidary City” is to bring these two transformation processes together in a constructive way. The research focuses on people who are homeless and/or earn part of their income through informal work, such as collecting deposits, selling street papers, or begging. The guiding question is: How can solidarity with marginalized groups in Germany's inner cities be strengthened in the long term?

The project takes the city centers of Bochum, Dortmund, and Munich as its case studies. The ILS is cooperating with the street papers bodo (Bochum and Dortmund) and BISS (Munich). These organizations will employ peer researchers who, together with ILS researchers, will investigate the transformation of inner cities and co-design them with a focus on the idea of a solidary city.