The German Research Foundation has granted Karsten Berr the research project "Reconstruction, explication and further development of the paradigm of open space planning into a research program with a transdisciplinary focus on life chances" for a project period of three years. The project will be based at the Chair of SRE and carried out in collaboration with Olaf Kühne.

In view of the high social relevance of open space planning as a form of spatial planning, the central research interest and goal of the project is to develop a modified multi-perspective framing of the traditional social science paradigm of open space planning, which is normatively oriented towards the concept of enabling life chances according to Ralf Dahrendorf. To this end, the theoretical and conceptual foundations of the paradigm will be reconstructed, explicated and further developed in a modifying manner. Four basic tasks are derived from these objectives:

1) Basic research in the philosophy of science on the (meta-)theoretical or multi-perspective framing of the paradigm of open space planning.

2) Basic theoretical reconstruction, explication and further development of the emancipatory 'core' of the research program of open space planning in the sense of a reformulation along the lines of the concept of life chances.

3) Empirical basic research: The resonance and significance of open spaces and their planning in public, planning and political discourse are investigated and taken into account.

4) Transdisciplinary orientation: In order to be able to mediate between science and practice in a targeted manner, for example, two transdisciplinarily organized workshops will be organized and the results achieved will be examined on the basis of a concrete case study.

Project Coordinator: Karsten Berr
Duration:  01.03.2024 - 28.02.2027
Research Funding Organization: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)