The joint project Cultural Education and its Networks examines experiences and social relationships as success factors of cultural participation in rural areas. In particular, the social contacts that become effective in the cultural field will be investigated.

The question of the emergence, structure and significance of actor biographies and networks of cultural education will be addressed in a two-stage investigation in different regions of northern and southern Germany. Subsequently, recommendations for action will be derived from the research results, after their validation by the actors, which serve the establishment and improvement of cultural (educational) offers in rural areas.

The offer structure of the rural areas to be examined with their local network actors, their emergence and the networking within the offer are mapped. The structural, personnel and institutional framework conditions are examined from the point of view of the actors, whereby conditions for success of regionally typical, popular cultural and informal offers are taken into account. The connections between formal, non-formal and informal places of learning are also addressed.

The study will be conducted by the University of Music in Würzburg in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-University in Würzburg until the end of 2022. The project is headed by Prof. Dr. Andreas C. Lehmann, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rauh and Dr. Johannes Hasselhorn. The study is financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.