The mobility transition and the associated structural change pose major challenges for regions dominated by the automotive sector. How resilient are citizens to crises, upheaval and change?
The Initiative Transformation Automobilregion Südwestsachsen (ITAS) – funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection – is dedicated to structural change in the region of south-west Saxony and develops needs-based approaches to enable companies, employees, institutions and civil society in the region to actively shape this change to everyone’s benefit. aconium was commissioned by ITAS with the study “Transformation competence, crisis resilience and willingness to change of the population in the Chemnitz/south-west Saxony region” to investigate the current crisis resilience and resistance of the population in the region.
Dr. Carmen Leidereiter, research associate at aconium GmbH, presented the study design at the 1st ITAS Congress. The first ITAS Congress brought together industry representatives with the broad civil society of the Southwest Saxony region to talk about current challenges and trends and to discuss solutions for the successful transformation of the region in interactive workshops.
As part of its study, aconium GmbH will not only look at individual and societal resilience and adaptability to shocks and crises, but also identify the processes and strategies that can contribute to the creation and consolidation of such crisis resilience. How much change can and should the population be expected to accept and in what time frame? How much change can social cohesion tolerate and how much security and stability must be maintained at the same time? After all, certain changes are unavoidable: For example, the end of the combustion engine will have a fundamental impact on the economic structure of the southwest Saxony region.
The focus is therefore on the following questions:
- What adjustments and strategies can be made today to make the impact of these changes as positive as possible?
- How can we help to better prepare regional society for upcoming changes?
- What skills and certainties do citizens need in order to have the courage to embrace change and look to the future with optimism?
In order to answer these questions, both the self-perception of the regional population and the perception of others are highlighted in a literature and media-based study. The results will be supplemented by our own empirical surveys and public interviews. The finalization of the study is planned in two stages for spring 2024 (study 1.0) and June 2025 (study 2.0).
The study is part of the ITAS project on the restructuring of the automotive region of south-west Saxony and its most important industries. ITAS aims to prepare companies, employees, institutions and civil society in the region for structural change and to enable them to actively shape this change. Further information on the automotive transformation can be found at https://itas-projekt.de/.