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10/12/2022 | Pressemitteilung

Northern Hesse as a role model? Lecture series on city and region in transformation

How well are the city of Kassel and North Hesse prepared for the coming major transformations? Digitization, demography, decarbonization - which strategies distinguish North Hesse compared to other regions? Where is there a need to catch up? These are the questions addressed by a public lecture series at the University of Kassel with a high-caliber lineup.

North Hesse and the city of Kassel are pioneers in the transformation to a sustainable society. Their strengths include close partnerships of relevant actors from politics, business, science, civil society and the university as well as exemplary projects. On the other hand, however, the region faces particular challenges, not least related to the strong role of the automotive industry. The lecture series aims to identify how the region's strengths can be developed to drive the transformation to a sustainable society.

"We want to take stock of where the region stands, where it can be considered a model throughout Germany, but where it may also have some catching up to do," announces Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schroeder, the initiator of the lecture series. Well-known academics (Uwe Altrock, Lukas Haffert, Tanja Klenk and Carsten Sommer) and practitioners such as Christian Geselle, Lord Mayor of Kassel, Bishop Beate Hofmann and Edgar Franke, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, have been invited to discuss different perspectives and reactions to transformation processes.

Schroeder heads the department of "Political System of the FRG" at the University of Kassel and has made a name for himself throughout Germany by providing scientific support for transformation processes, particularly in the world of work and politics. "We are looking for a dialogue between science and practice in order to better understand how crises and transformations can be managed in such a way that new opportunities for more sustainable development in the region can be developed from them," says Schroeder. "What impulses does Northern Hesse need from politics and business to assert itself in the multi-crisis situation?" Contributions from visitors are expressly encouraged.

The lecture series, entitled "Transformations and the Urban-Rural Relationship (in Northern Hesse), will be held every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Lecture Hall 6, Arnold-Bode-Str. 12. The first date is Tuesday, Oct. 25, on the topic "Understanding Transformation. Challenges in Northern Hesse" with Prof. Wolfgang Schroeder and Kai Georg Bachmann, Regionalmanagement Nordhessen. The series of events is open to the public and, of course, free of charge.

The complete program can be found here:
https://goto.uni-kassel.de/go/RingvorlesungTransformationen.
A recording is available after each session at
https://goto.uni-kassel.de/go/RingvorlesungTransformationen.