Structural change in the lignite mining areas

The Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), together with the RWTH Aachen University, the City of Mönchengladbach, the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU), the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH), the Zukunftsagentur Rheinisches Revier and the Institute for Structural Change and Sustainability (HALIS), is organising the second transdisciplinary conference "Structural Change in Lignite Mining Areas" in Mönchengladbach on 27 and 28 November 2024. and 28 November 2024 for the second edition of the transdisciplinary conference "Structural change in the lignite mining regions" in Mönchengladbach.

In a dialogue between science and practice, the transformation regions in the Rhenish, Lusatian and Central German coalfields will be discussed from a resource perspective. The structural change conference raises the questions of how transformations can be planned and co-designed in the field of tension between time and expectation pressure on the one hand and an openness to a learning culture that is tolerant of mistakes on the other, and to what extent the three lignite phase-out regions can be regarded as model regions for a successful and, above all, comprehensive social transformation. Around 200 participants are expected to attend.

The specialist workshops at the conference are based on a comprehensive understanding of transformation. A sustainable energy supply, conflicts over resources and decarbonisation as a potential booster for new value chains will be addressed as well as spatial structural policy, participation formats and legal aspects of structural change. Last but not least, using the example of the Rhenish mining area, the programme will look at the conditions under which an earlier coal phase-out can succeed.

For further information, please see our provisional programme on the Rhenish mining district website. We look forward to your registration.