Project “Community-based Approaches for Pandemic-Resilient Neighborhoods”, Wuppertal Institute
The project idea picks up on the solidarity effects occurring in neighborhoods as a result of the Corona crisis in order to reinforce them with additional offers on a web app already established in the pilot neighborhood Arrenberg in Wuppertal (for example, lunch offers from the local gastronomy, help and exchange offers for family conflicts in quarantine, etc.; see also arrenberg.app). In the development of new digital forms of participation, communication and interaction, the Interface and User Experience Design Chair (Prof. Hemmert) in the Industrial Design program at the University of Wuppertal is particularly active in the project.
State restrictions and interventions are currently accelerating transformation processes that were unimaginable just a few months ago. The goal is therefore to generate positive perceptions of the situation via the web app’s offers of help and solidarity and to strengthen the self-efficacy of the neighborhood residents (by making them realize: “we can do this together!”), which will provide an ideal basis for sustainability transformation in the neighborhood after the pandemic.
The platform for neighborhood solidarity is a unique opportunity to take up current transformation processes in the neighborhood and to expand them after the crisis for sustainability issues arising from it. The platform is to be offered in several languages in order to reach as broad a target group as possible in the neighborhood. In order to prepare this, close cooperation is taking place with the association Aufbruch am Arrenberg e. V. and the Alevi community in Wuppertal. The broad use and diffusion of the web app thus achieved should lay the foundation for neighborhood cooperation, solidarity and sustainable neighborhood development in the post-Corona phase. Other cities could benefit from the experience gained with the app in Wuppertal: in a roll-out with the national Reallabor network, among others, in which the Wuppertal Institute plays a leading role, transfer possibilities of the solidarity platform for other cities that follow a smart city approach, for example, are to be explored.
Project topic
Platform for neighborhood solidarity – using public good approaches now to build pandemic resilient neighborhoods.
Project implementation
Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy gGmbH, Wuppertal
Research area innovation laboratories
Sustainable Production and Consumption Division
Dr. Franziska Stelzer, Project Manager
E-mail: franziska.stelzer@wupperinst.org
Website: www.wupperinst.org
Runtime
06.05.2020 – 06.06.2021
File number
DBU-AZ 36018
Status: 19.10.2020