Perspectives for youth cultures away from the metropolis

Their goal is to use the results of their research to contribute to more precise and improved funding practices for cultural youth projects in structurally and financially weak rural areas. The prevention of further migration to urban areas and protection against anti-democratic appropriation of youth cultures are also in the focus of the project. Project partners are Prof. Dr. Rita Braches-Chyrek, Chair of Social Pedagogy at the University of Bamberg, and Dr. Andreas Kallert from the Chair of Economic Geography at the KU. The project entitled “DIYhoch3 – Jugendkulturelle Selbstorganisation im Dreiländereck Bayern-Sachsen-Thüringen” on self-organization of youth cultures in the tri-border region of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture as part of the Federal Rural Development Program.

The researchers not only want to focus on the three regions, but also on three areas of cultural life: maintaining customs and traditions, musical scenes such as hip-hop and informal sports culture such as biking or skating. “Young people often pursue all these activities on their own initiative and thus shape their way growing up to adulthood and also shape their region”, says Professor Braches-Chyrek. “By focusing on youths and young adults in rural areas, we are taking a closer look at residents who could play a key role in the future development of their regions.”

In the course of the project, the researchers will discuss with responsible stakeholders from the administration, youth work and cultural administration, and will actively involve young people in the project on site to create participatory research conditions. "Previous research has shown, among other things, that the framework conditions for the development of youth cultures significantly depend on the municipal capacity to act. However, most of the investigated regions are in a strained macroeconomic situation and are in some cases undergoing consolidation programs to reduce their debt", explains Dr. Andreas Kallert. In a separate project funded by the German Research Foundation, he is currently investigating how debt assistance requirements for municipalities affect the local quality of life – also with regard to voluntary spending to promote (recreational) culture or sports offers. In the investigated tri-border region, too, the researchers therefore want to specifically examine how the consolidation of finances affects the status and development of youth cultures. The fact that around 90 percent of cultural funding in Germany goes to urban areas, where only 30 percent of the country's population lives, is also a background factor. "For the most part, this is professional, so-called high culture, which is extremely rare in rural areas and thus hardly ever receives public funding", says Kallert. Culture in rural areas, on the other hand, has more of a social function of community building and in this sense also has a political significance.

"The shaping of the rural environment and recognition of youth cultural activity by the community can have a strengthening effect on democracy in the region", describe Franziska Imhoff (KU) and Tilman Kallenbach (University of Bamberg), who will be responsible for the project as research assistants. This is also important because attempts by right-wing extremists to take over youth cultures can be observed in the surveyed area. Right-wing martial arts events, concerts by right-wing extremist bands, conspiracy-theory demonstrations, or ‘völkisch’ tent camps have a strong appeal to young people and pose a real and serious threat to a democratic community. Such developments could in turn also contribute to structurally disadvantaged municipalities becoming even less attractive and being "left behind" by prospering regions.