After successful completion of the course, students are able to identify the specific opportunities and challenges of rural and alpine areas, to develop and critically reflect on scenarios for possible future developments and to present their own planning recommendations. Tools for citizen participation aimed at the specific stakeholder situation in rural and alpine regions can be identified, tested and adapted. Integrative and sectoral planning instruments as well as planning strategies can be analyzed and applied to specific areas. Students will be sensitized to the perception of space in rural and alpine locations or regions and will also be enabled to develop the high-level communication skills needed to involve residents (main and secondary residents, multi-local residents), guests (tourism) as well as local or regional stakeholders. Students can draw on problem-centered strategies, approaches and solutions and adapt them to renewal/transformation processes and thus to future potentials, but also to growing conflicts of use and interests. Through the reflection of spatial and sectoral (planning) strategies, but also through the integration of different problem views and disciplinary approaches, rural and alpine spaces - villages, municipalities, small towns and regions - can be identified, conveyed and developed as a space for future innovation.

This year, the focus will be on rural areas.

The course is bundled with course 280.875 "SE Strategies for Rural and Alpine Areas". It deals with rural or alpine territories and their inhabitants as well as their cultural and economic resources and future chances in an integrative way. Planning instruments and processes as well as strategies, interventions and projects suited to specific spaces will be discussed. General and sectoral as well as local, regional and supra-regional strategies and planning instruments will be identified and broken down to local or regional conditions.

In the course of the semester, students work extensively on strategies for rural areas. First, they will learn how to research existing strategies and how to read them. In the next step, strategies will be analyzed, refined and tested. After that, suggestions for the design and implementation of integrated spatial planning processes in rural areas will be developed. The thematic focus will be on highly relevant issues such as the climate crisis (climate strategy), land consumption (land strategy), transport and landscape. The course outcomes are to contribute to the understanding of rural regions as innovative and future-oriented areas.

The course package of the 2022 summer semester focuses on peripheral rural areas using the example of the northern Waldviertel region. It is planned that in the next academic year, the emphasis will be on alpine areas.

The course contents will be developed in group and individual activities as well as in plenary sessions. The course will be held in cooperation with the Landuni Drosendorf. Several days will be spent working on site in the Drosendorf region with the involvement of stakeholders and residents of the region. 

The course is jointly held with 280.875 Strategies for rural and alpine areas. It is therefore recommended to complete both courses in summer semester 2022. The details for both courses (dates/dates) will be announced exclusively via the TISS and TUWEL course of the VU "Planning processes for rural and alpine areas". 

The course sessions will take place in presence mode. Please follow TU Wien regulations. Changes due to the coronavirus pandemic may occur.

participation, attendance, submissions

For the course deliverables, a wide range of formats is possible (text, booklet, draft plan, podcast, video); in addition, interactive interventions are to be designed on site (Drosendorf) for the chosen topic.

Registrations for this course are not definite. In the allocation of spots, preference will be given to those students who take the course in combination with the SE "Strategies for Rural and Alpine Areas" (280.874) or or who take the entire elective module.

Interest in the issues and challenges of rural and alpine areas and basic knowledge of planning tools, concepts, cultural practices and strategies are expected. Mandatory prerequisites: None.