Discourse and practices in shrinking regions. An analysis of the subjective relevance of shrinkage discourses using the example of the municipality of Altenburger Land

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Several social-structural developments such as outmigration, thinning out of social and technical infrastructure, a decline in population and more are covered and grasped by a discourse on shrinkage. It thus implicates political, programmatic and spatial-planning ways of dealing with this diagnosis which is regularly a spatial diagnosis. Based on this observation, the project examines if and how discourses on shrinkage could gain relevance for subjects concerned. The leading question is: How do processes of and discourses on shrinkage impact on the everyday life of the citizens in regions labeled (and stigmatized) accordingly? This will be analyzed with the use of the example of the municipality Altenburger Land (Thuringia). Entities of the analysis are subjects, who are confronted with phenomena of shrinkage within their everyday life. These are manifested as e.g. high vacancy rate, outmigration and a decreasing density of infrastructure, but also discursively e.g. by stigmatization. The project follows the hypothesis that shrinkage discourses influence subjective patterns of interpretation and insofar preconfigure processes based on individual decisions (such as outmigration). Simultaneously, shrinkage discourses, besides his hegemonic characteristics, do not determine individual decisions and certainly not owing to a linear relation between discourse and subject. Special recognition will be given to alternative and counter-hegemonic interpretations by the subjects in shrinking regions. The project contributes to a deepened understanding of the reciprocal relationship of the social and spatial dimension of shrinkage based on a non-linear understanding of discourse and subject.