A Renewal of Integrated Concepts as a Strategy for Enhancing Its Own Scope as a Small Town in a Shrinking Realm: The Case of Schmölln/Thuringia

What does it mean to bring climate adaptation and sustainability “on the ground” into a Thuringian small town that is both urban and rural? From 2021 to 2024, we conducted a cooperative research project with the municipality to investigate this. For three years, the research partners explored ways to integrate the “big” topics of climate adaptation, sustainability, public services, and demographic change into the everyday urban development processes of a small town in rural Thuringia, an area experiencing long-term population decline. The result of the project is three volumes in the ISDN series that provide initial answers, which are often derived from the combination of research and teaching. One volume focuses on energy, housing, and mobility, presenting stakeholders, projects, and research results that can be used to address these issues locally in rural-urban municipalities more broadly. Another collects findings on socio-infrastructural planning, offering a dedicated perspective on gender and youth “in the countryside”. Ultimately, all socio-infrastructural planning activities aim to support an “Urban Social Cultural Care”. This article aims to contextualize transfer-oriented research within theoretical debates on sustainability transitions, paying special attention to the opportunities available to municipalities with limited administrative resources to enhance their own scope of action.