Students are provided with instruments, programmes and strategies for the development and renewal of rural areas. This includes village renewal, a subset of local planning looking into aspects of village development, preservation, change and structural improvement. Students will learn about planning at the regional level (intercommunal planning, development concepts for small regions, EU funding, etc.). These instruments should be considered as dynamic planning processes within the a local community and require the planners also to assume coordinating and moderating functions. Students will learn about ways and means of involving the population in the planning processes.
The following subjects will be adressed: 1. Functions and functional changes in villages and rural areas;
2. Types of settlements and villages; 3. Instruments for development and renewal planning, including different procedures and processes in the Austrian Länder and in the neighbouring countries; 4. Village renewal processes, workflow and analysis on the basis of exemples; 5. Options and instruments for involving the local stakeholders in the planning process; 6. Implemantation of planned measures.
