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S. Zerlauth:
"Temporary publicness created by networks - a perspective for the In-Between?";
Vortrag: PLiC Public Life in the In-Between-City International Conference, Haifa; 06.06.2010 - 10.06.2010; in: "PLiC Public Life in the In-Between City International Conference", Eigenverlag: ITT Israel Institute of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Haifa (2010), ISBN: 978-965-91138-4-2; S. 167 - 168.

The in-between-city is a phenomenon beyond the urban periphery. Even rural districts like Altenkirchen, situated in the famous Westerwald between the cities Bonn, Cologne, Mainz and Wiesbaden are torn between local and global economy, between living space and non-places of movement and between its small historical centers and the open countryside . The potentials and means to maintain and even create new local distinctiveness concerning culture and public life are to large extent unknown.

Methodology/Approach:
Since 2007 Altenkirchen, an association of 42 municipalities with 24 thousand inhabitants, and other rural fragments of in-between-cities e.g. in Emsland and Vorarlberg have been surveyed by an international team of urban planners concerning the possibilities to maintain and develop cultural potentials and public life, that might create local identity and solidarity. Beside the collection of socio-economic data the methodology of semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders has been used. A culture-touristic network has been established in Altenkirchen and is now surveyed continuously.

Intermediate results of the research have been discussed and validated with experts on international conferences in Europe (UK; Rumania, Germany, Austria etc.).

Findings:
(1) For one part of the local population the rural in-between-city fragment is still the core of their all-day life and their identity; for the other part it plays that role only part-time.
(2) Publicness in rural in-between-city fragments has to be produced by events and can easily be produced by events. Cases like Altenkrichen and Meppen showed already years before conscious interventions of urban planers an enormous number and variety of events - manly culture and sports, but also focusing on or combined with education, trade and even religious or political topics.
(3) Events, mainly based on a common attitude of a certain group of the local population, create identity and divide the local population at the same time. Clusters of events organized by diverse urban players or even in a network of networks kept together by win-win situations and not by attitude contain the potential to create publicness in an urban sense, attract population from agglomerations and even create income and employment for the local population.
(4) Urban planners and the state seem to play a catalyst role concerning the start, the establishment and the development of these new types of event-networks - from risk management to the maintenance of a social integrative function.
(5) Research is needed concerning the methods to start, establish and guide ´cosmopolitan´ event-networks - Porters theory of network business might be a good starting point.

publicness, in-between-city, network model, economies of scale, identity of public space

http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_186950.pdf