The project ‚Initiating Transformations in the Münsterland Together‘ aims to explore in a participatory way how sustainable and equitable change processes can be shaped and accompanied. This is considered interdisciplinary by researchers of applied landscape ecology, sociology and the arts. The starting point of the investigation is the current institutional socio-ecological renewal of a residency program for artists, the „Künstlerdorf Schöppingen“. There, three different social spaces are created over a period of three years, in which experiments are conducted together with citizens and the questions of commonality and just sustainability are explored. These social spaces are different artist workshops, a community garden and the library of the Künstlerdorf as a meeting, learning and knowledge place, as a „Living Library Schöppingen“. The interaction with the citizens consists of the participation of staff and fellows of the Künstlerdorf itself and the citizens of the region, who enter into conversation at eye level and contribute their own ideas and participate reflexively in various series of events. In addition, the Citizen Science project will be deepened within the framework of a transdisciplinary course of the Institute of Landscape Ecology and the Institute of Sociology of WWU together with fellows of the Künstlerdorf in the summer semester 2023, whereby the exchange between science, art and practice will be conveyed to prospective scientists.

 
The project is supported by the WWU Münster Foundation and the Arbeitsstelle Forschungstransfer (AFO) of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) Münster.