ARL – Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association
Who we are
The ARL works at the interface between science, planning practice and politics. Its research and work covers issues of spatial development and spatial planning – fields in which many key social challenges are concentrated in a concrete and conflictual manner. Addressing these issues requires interdisciplinary cooperation and reflective exchange between scientific analysis and planning and political practice.
In doing so, the ARL combines two institutional roles that give it a special set of tasks: as a social research infrastructure of the Leibniz Association, the ARL provides permanent structures, procedures and formats that enable cooperative work across disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
As a scientific academy with elected members, the ARL is also a self-organised, professionally diverse network that develops original knowledge on issues of spatial development, planning and policy through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary cooperation, strengthens scientific reflection and addresses socially relevant challenges from different perspectives.
How we work
One of the ARL's central concerns is not only to pool spatial knowledge, but also to generate it from scratch – and to feed it back into scientific discourse, planning practice and political decision-making processes via a multidimensional transfer. This takes place in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary formats in which researchers from different disciplines and experts from politics, administration and planning practice work together. The ARL offers reliable institutional structures in which collaborative knowledge processes, trust-building and temporary and permanent networking are possible. We combine disciplinary expertise with practical knowledge, thereby making an independent contribution to scientific knowledge production.
Another important task is knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer is understood as a dialogical process of mutual communication, dissemination and integration of spatial knowledge. The ARL's transfer activities focus in particular on the following key transfer areas: spatial science, planning in public administration and politics. We understand transfer into the political and administrative sphere as policy advice. The ARL supports spatially relevant decision-making processes at various political levels – from municipal to European – through scientifically sound, independent, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary contributions. The diverse formats of policy advice include, among other things, position statements from the working formats and dialogue forums on current political issues, knowledge-based statements on legislative proposals, participation in commissions and political advisory boards, and policy dialogues in the form of specialist events that bring together actors from science, administration and politics for targeted exchange.
In addition to these transfer formats, a significant part of the transfer activities takes place directly in the working contexts of the ARL working formats and dialogue forums, in which participants from science and practice participate in the network's work and research processes, so that they can take the results of the application-oriented work directly into their practical application contexts and use them for their everyday work and/or feed them back into research. In addition, publications, reports and documentation provide quick access to the work results for all interested parties, both within the network and beyond.
In this way, the ARL has a broad transfer effect.
Our goals
The ARL wants to help shape sustainable spatial development and social prospects for the future. That is why we facilitate interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on current spatial issues. We aim to identify action- and solution-oriented ways and means of making cities, rural areas and regions liveable and crisis-proof for all people, while protecting the diversity of nature and the landscape and preserving them for future generations.
We seek socially and economically just as well as ecologically responsible solutions to the pressing challenges of our time and make knowledge-based and practical contributions to:
- sustainable mobility for all,
- a participatory and sustainable energy transition,
- democratic, efficient and transformative (spatial) planning,
- justice, social participation and resilience, and
- the protection and development of open spaces and ecosystems.
Do you share these goals and want to get involved? Then find out about opportunities to participate in our network or feel free to contact us!
