During the past three decades we have witnessed nothing less than a digital revolution. Digitalisation refers to a long-term process in the course of which more and more parts of social and economic life are being captured by digital technologies and the digitisation of human action. Digitalisation can thus be seen as the most disruptive part of the history of the mediatization of societies.

The time when rural areas were written off wholesale is over. However, this image change has been underway for some time. Small rural towns are becoming increasingly attractive. Newcomers and old residents are revitalising villages, sometimes even in structurally weak regions far from the urban centres.

Coworking spaces, FabLabs and Maker Spaces have so far been predominantly found in large cities. But such "collaborative workspaces" are increasingly being established in rural areas, where they provide access to digital technologies and other work resources. A new EU-funded Innovative Training Network (ITN) is now studying the effects of such places. The IRS is involved with its research department "Dynamics of Economic Spaces".

In fashion design, very diverse competences are combined to create something new. Increasingly, this is done via specialized digital platforms. The interplay of various platforms in creative design processes – labeled the “platform ecology” – as well as the interplay of online and offline interaction, are the topic of the lead project in research department “Dynamics of Economic Spaces”.

Transportation, energy, communication – how do infrastructure networks get to be labelled as “critical infrastructures”? In its lead project, the research department “Institutional Change and Regional Public Goods” looks at the construction of criticality. Urban climate adaptation and energy transitions serve as fields of study.

Digitalisation is more than broadband access. How do villages shape and use digital technologies to solve their problems? Who are the drivers and which problems occur? In its lead project, the research department “Dynamics of Communication, Knowledge and Spatial Development” investigates the pathways of digitalisation in rural areas.

This research project investigates the dynamics of urban policy formulation in response to international migration.

For a long time, in historical research on the GDR and the FRG, the opposition of ideologies and systems took centre stage. However, there were parallel developments too. The Department for Historical Research in its lead project looks at socio-spatial disparities in both German states, tracing both differences and commonalities.

Research at the IRS is focused on the spatial aspects and contexts of social action. In doing so, spatial phenomena are explored in terms of both processual and historical dimensions using social-scientific methods.