From Business Development to Quality of Life

Abstract

Despite billions of euros of economic and infrastructural support, East Germany has experienced neither economic recovery in the form of the ‘flourishing landscapes' promised by Helmut Kohl in 1989, nor a boom in innovation. Instead, the region is undergoing processes of accelerating demographic change: declining birth rates, selective migration – mainly of young women between 15 and 25 – and as a result, an ageing population. The results include peripheralization of rural regions and marginalization of social groups. It is time to think about alternatives to classic forms of economic and infrastructural support, and to seek and foster potential for innovation beyond the traditional forms of market-oriented product innovation. Examples include process innovations in the public sector, services such as e-government, and new concepts of geriatric care and education that can, in turn, help to maintain the quality of life in peripheral rural areas. Following introductory comments, the authors examine the overall concept of innovation to identify the key issues at stake for rural innovations. Then, after describing the specific situation in rural north-east Germany, they discuss several innovations that can increase the quality of life in such areas.