to the website of the chair Sociology of Rural Areas!

For many years, villages and small towns, as well as the social and demographic changes taking place in rural areas, did not seem to be a relevant field of research in the highly urbanised society of Germany. However, for some time now, there has been increasing public and scientific interest in urban-rural differences, but also in the ‘Landlust’ (a desire for the countryside) and in ‘new rurality’. Critical, both comprehensive and small-scale social science research is therefore needed to question spatial stereotypes and paint a differentiated picture of living conditions in rural areas in the first half of the 21^st century.

The chair of rural sociology is one out of just two of this denomination in whole Germany. Since May 2025, it has been held by Prof. Dr. Annett Steinführer in a joint appointment with the Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forestry and Fisheries. 

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