Social disadvantage in rural peripheries in Czechia and in eastern Germany: opportunity structures and individual agency in a comparative perspective

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The project investigates the interrelations between social disadvantage, local and regional opportunity structures and individual agency in rural regions with particular economic and demographic problems (rural peripheries) in Czechia and eastern Germany. The project focuses on two sets of research questions. The first set concerns the spatial patterns of social disadvantage and deprivation in rural areas in general, as well as the extent and prevailing forms of social disadvantage and opportunity structures in rural peripheries more specifically. The second set asks for the impact of such opportunity structures (e.g., social networks or the accessibility of labour markets and education facilities) as part of the local and regional residential context on socially disadvantaged groups and the interdependencies between opportunity structures and individual agency. In a first step, both teams conduct area-based statistical secondary analyses of all rural areas to identify rural peripheries in Czechia and in eastern Germany, to analyse the availability and accessibility of local and regional opportunity structures and to investigate ongoing processes of rural restructuring. Based on that, the teams will conduct in-depth case studies in two preferably distinct rural peripheries each in Czechia and eastern Germany with regard to the interrelations between social disadvantage, opportunity structures and individual agency. This will be done with a mixed-methods design combining expert interviews with regional stakeholders and qualitative problem-centred interviews with members of socially disadvantaged groups. This research step will also include the investigation of ego-centred networks and time-space activity patterns of socially disadvantaged actors. By means of follow-up interviews, in-depth information on the interrelations between opportunity structures, social networks and individual agency will be collected.All project steps will be based on a close cooperation of the Czech and the German research partners. The teams will interpret the generated data in common discussions to identify factors and processes of social disadvantage in rural peripheries in a comparative way and to find commonalities and differences between Czechia and eastern Germany. The project is innovative as it analyses the actual relevance of local and regional opportunity structures in rural peripheries for individual agency and social integration of socially disadvantaged groups in a cross-national perspective and with a multi-method design. It will, thus, conceptually, methodologically and empirically contribute to the debates on peripheralisation and rural restructuring.