CFA: Transdisciplinarity, co-creativity and transfer: social science research and transformational practices in rural and regional contexts

Organizers:

Ariane Sept, Technical University Vienna, TUW (Until January 2026: Hochschule München)

Ludger Gailing, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, BTU

Alexandra Retkowski, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg, BTU

Alexander Hamedinger, Technical University Vienna, TUW

Full description:

https://alterperimentale.de/call-for-abstracts-workshop-tu-wien/

With the increasing importance of transdisciplinarity and the so called third mission at universities and research institutes, transfer formats are becoming more significant also in social sciences. In this call we refer in particular to urban/regional sociology, spatial planning, and social work. While transfer in the fields of technological and economical research is associated with the market maturity of innovative products or the founding of start-ups or spin-offs from universities and institutes, the concept of transfer in the social sciences is still rather vague (Compagnucci & Spigarelli 2020). Although the field of social entrepreneurship is growing, start-ups in rural areas tend to be in the manufacturing sector and are generally more stable than in cities, as shown for Germany (Simmler & Garcia Dominguez 2025). In addition, co-creative transdisciplinary formats such as living labs for the creation of innovations have been established for some time (e.g. Marvin et al. 2018; Turnhout et al. 2020; Pentzold et al. 2023) though in the meantime labs have been criticized because of their tendency to ‘technocratize’ political decision making (Evans & Karvonen 2014) or because they miss to link with wider governance (Hodson et al. 2018). Furthermore, social sciences are often primarily assigned the role of accompaniment and limited to foster acceptance. In urban living labs and other transdisciplinary formats in cities, on the other hand, social sciences often play an active role, which is also widely discussed (e.g. Frehse et al. 2025). Far less attention is paid to transdisciplinary research and transfer in rural areas and larger regional contexts.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

– The role of universities and research institutes in negotiating and organizing transfer in the field of social innovations in rural areas and larger regional contexts

– Co-Creation and participation as modes of transdisciplinary transfer in rural and regional contexts;

– Conceptual and practical contributions to distinguishing between transdisciplinarity, transfer, and third mission for the social sciences, and/or the relationship between transfer, co-creative practical research, and sustainable structural strengthening in rural regions

– Ethics, politics, methodological and theoretical approaches to co creative transfer practices and social innovation;

– Socio-economic interfaces as arenas for shaping effective scientific transfer processes;

– Evaluation and risk management of social innovation and co-creative transfer in rural and regional contexts;

– Co-creative practices and transfer formats in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on specific rural and regional challenges (e.g. demographic change, decarbonisation, community development, etc.);

– Interdisciplinary experiences in rural areas and regions between planning, sociology and social work, and the respective disciplinary self-image, which may be challenged in the process.

Submission
Please, send your abstracts by January 15, 2026, to vienna@alterperimentale.de You will receive notification of acceptance by February 15, 2026. The abstract should be no longer than 500 words, including the title. In addition, please note the names and affiliations of the contributors.

Workshop
The one-and-a-half-day workshop will take place on June 11-12, 2026, at Technical University Vienna and is a collaboration with the transfer initiative “Alterperimentale” led by BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. The aim is to engage in dialogue with each other via the submitted papers and thus contribute to a common understanding of transdisciplinarity, co-creativity and transfer for rural and regional contexts. The results of the workshop will be published in a Special Issue.