Art, Design and Theory of Regional Revitalization within an Information Society: Mutual Benefit for People, Economy and Environment - A Case Study

Some very general problems of present society are: Is destruction of nature an inevitable consequence of human development - which of course would lead to a disaster for humankind? Is the present shortage of jobs a natural and ongoing outcome of scientific and technological development? Is it possible for societies to change voluntarily without huge pressures to avoid misery? Any information society offers a huge potential for environmentally and socially favorable as well as for disastrous options and behavior. Will these changes deteriorate or ameliorate the problems outlined above? What is the nature of these changes and of the present options? These options affect living, economy, working, housing and the environment. They are changing cities of all sizes as well as the rural areas. Responsible use of this huge potential is only possible if people are directly taught how to shape their own future and to understand and use new tools and approaches. Recent results from science show that success is only possible from cooperative approaches not from confrontational or competitive behavior. Hence, to get into a position which allows solutions it is necessary to demonstrate to everybody who is beginning to enter an information society that isolated approaches do not work, for example, that aim only at new jobs. We think an integrated approach exists to simultaneously solve all of the above mentioned problems. For this goal we are working together with citizens, companies, politicians and administrations to develop and implement an integrated future for living, economy, working, housing and the environment. This involves creativity, social cohesion, urban and landscape design of realistic dreams and humble consultance work. In particular, after three years of work with a city many people understood how to create new jobs and to support an information-based economy in such a way that the managers became the ones to push for "an outstanding ecological revitalization of the landscape to make the city competitive in the information society". Thus, coalitions between economy and environmentalists are becoming reality which help to overcome economic problems. The end result is a theory and an implementation package for a viable future for people, economy and the environment applicable now. Abstract & Keywords → p. 159