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PD Dr. Gerhard Rainer

Gerhard Rainer
PD Dr. Gerhard Rainer
Study counselling BSc
Phone +49 8421 93-21721
E-mail gerhard.rainer@ku.de
Room: O18-204
Postal Address
Ostenstraße 18
85072 Eichstätt
Office hours
The Human Geography Group is not staffed for the time being. However, we are always available for you by email.

About

I studied Geography and Economics as well as History, Social Studies and Political Education at the University of Innsbruck and the Universidad de Sevilla between 2004 and 2010.

In my doctoral thesis at the University of Innsbruck, which I completed in 2016, I dealt with tourism and amenity migration in the Valles Calchaquíes (northwest Argentina), a peripheral rural region that has been increasingly integrated into globalisation processes since the 1990s. From a political-ecological perspective, I explored the question of how social relations to nature have changed in a region characterised by pronounced socio-ecological inequalities as a result of the growing importance of tourism and amenity migration.

At the interface of cultural-geographical human-environment research and economic geography, I have been working intensively on questions of the globalisation of the wine industry and the transformation of wine regions since my doctorate (DFG funded). In the sense of an ethnography of global connections, I combine empirical work in Argentina, Chile, Italy (South Tyrol) and New Zealand. In 2023, I completed my habilitation with a thesis on ‘Market, value and regional development under globalisation. The transformation of the wine industry’.

In close thematic alignment with my doctorate, I have also been working for several years on the links between tourism and real estate market development in the Alpine region (funded by the Bavarian Centre for Tourism). Through empirical work in highly touristic locations and in close transdisciplinary co-operation with partners from practice and civil society, I investigate the underlying drivers of current change processes and try to develop ways towards sustainable regional development.

In a smaller, self-financed research project, I am also investigating theory formation in geography in the first half of the 20th century, transnational knowledge circulation and the entanglement of geographers with the National Socialist power apparatus.
 

Education and career

  • Since 10/2016: Research assistant at the Department of Geography at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
  • 2023: Completion of the habilitation. Habilitation thesis: ‘Market, value and regional development under globalisation. The transformation of the wine industry’. Mentoring: Prof Christian Steiner (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt), Prof Stefan Ouma (University of Bayreuth), Prof Robert Pütz (University of Frankfurt); External reviewer: Prof Annika Mattissek (University of Freiburg)
  • 10/2012-09/2016: Research assistant at the Institute of Geography at the University of Innsbruck
  • 02/2016: Completion of the doctoral programme in Geography at the University of Innsbruck. Title of the dissertation: Globalisation and the political ecology of tourism and amenity migration in the Calchaquí Valleys (NW-Argentina). Supervisor: Prof Martin Coy. First reviewer: Prof Perdita Pohle (University of Erlangen): Graded Very good; Second reviewer: Prof Rodolfo Bertoncello (Universidad de Buenos Aires): Assessed as very good; viva voce assessed as very good. [best possible assessment in Austria]
  • 10/2011-06/2012: Marietta Blau Scholarship of the Austrian Exchange Service (OeAD) for academic stays abroad, funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research. Stay at the Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales in Tucumán (Argentina)
  • 10/2010-09/2011: Scholarship holder of the University of Innsbruck (doctoral scholarship from the promotion of young researchers)
  • 04/2010: Completion of the teacher training programme (equivalent to the German state examination). Title of the thesis: ‘Land use and land use conflicts in the Tafí Valley (Tucumán/ Argentina)’. Supervisor: Prof Martin Coy. Graded with very good
  • 2006-2007: Studied Geography at the Universidad de Sevilla (as part of the Erasmus programme)
  • 2004-2010: Teacher training programme in Geography and Economics/History, Social Studies and Political Education at the University of Innsbruck

     

Awards, grants, and scholarships

  • Research grant from the German Research Foundation: ‘Geographies of qualification in the globalised wine market’ (01/22-08/2025); project management together with Prof. Christian Steiner
  • Research grant from the Bavarian Centre for Tourism: ‘Tourism and residential real estate development in the Bavarian Alpine region: Innovative approaches for more sustainable tourism and regional development’ (01/2023-12/2023); project management together with Prof. Christian Steiner and Dr Frank Zirkl
  • Research grant from the Bavarian Centre for Tourism: ‘Sustainable tourism and regional development in Garmisch-Partenkirchen between tourism, leisure-oriented migration and the real estate market’ (01/2022-12/2022); project management together with Prof. Christian Steiner and Dr Frank Zirkl
  • 2016: Funding from the Mountain Agriculture Research Centre at the University of Innsbruck for the research project: ‘Globalisation and internationalisation of viticulture in South Tyrol’; project management together with Dipl.-Geogr. Jutta Kister
  • 10/2011-06/2012: Marietta Blau scholarship from the Austrian Exchange Service (OeAD) for research stays abroad, financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research. Stay at the Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales in Tucumán (Argentina)
  • 12/2011: Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in the Alpine Space of the research focus ‘Alpine Space - Man and Environment’ of the University of Innsbruck for the diploma thesis on ‘Land Use and Land Use Conflicts in the Tafí Valley (Tucumán/Argentina)’
     

Research interests: topics

  • Geographical development research (in particular globalisation processes in rural areas of the Global South)
  • Human-environment research (in particular political ecology)
  • Tourism and leisure-induced mobility
  • Changes in the wine industry and transformation of wine regions in the context of globalisation processes
      

Research interests: regions

  • Latin America (especially Argentina and Chile)
  • Germany (especially the Alpine region)
  • Italy (South Tyrol)
      

Selected publications

Artikel

Buch

Aufsatz in einem Buch

Veranstaltungsbeitrag (unveröffentlicht)

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