Educational Infrastructures in Mid-sized Towns

The sub-project Educational Infrastructures examines how digital infrastructures in education complement the existing educational offerings in mid-sized towns and looks at the potentials and limitations of digitalisation to support local educational infrastructures. The idea of the project departs from the observation that the opportunity structures of young people in German mid-sized towns are shaped by two main developments: On the one hand, young peoples’ access to education still varies substantially across the regions; on the other hand, the educational policies have been dominated by new digital forms of governance. The sub-project, however, places the accessibility of education centre stage, which points to the subjectively perceived accessibility of educational systems and the ability to shape and eventually change the educational decision-making. The partners work transdisciplinarily to scrutinise what the school-based, extracurricular, formal, and non-formal educational services in mid-sized towns are and to capture the various points and means of cooperation and communication (ways, reasons, interactions) among the actors. Based on the evidence gathered, they can provide insights on how to overcome the typical “pillarization” of educational landscapes and to enhance the life chances and opportunity structures of young people. The sub-project applies both qualitative and quantitative research methods in contrasting case studies. It is split into five working packages and starts with a reconstruction of institutional infrastructures, both school-based and extracurricular, by applying the method of document analysis. It then continues with researching the various rationalities, practices, and courses of action that appear among the actors involved. By applying expert interviews, the sub-project examines the existing processes and interactions in the mid-sized towns. Finally, the sub-project captures the competences, needs, and requirements of the educational policymakers and practitioners by conducting web-based expert surveys. In line with the knowledge-based and application-based foci of the research group, the sub-project also enquires into the possibilities of efficient use and/or establishment of digital infrastructures in mid-sized towns. In line with the overall concept of the research group, the sub-project seeks to understand how the processes of digitalisation shape the capabilities/capability sets of relevant actors in education, how they affect educational structures, networks, and processes, and what needs and requirements become visible and/or problematic. Since mid-sized towns are conceptualised as living labs and are actively involved in the research process, it becomes possible to examine, how the existing rationalities, practices, and actor-constellations are being re-framed and re-adjusted through the processes of digitalisation and to propose solutions in terms of policy recommendations, datasets, and reflexive tools.