In the future, care at home will be characterised by the interaction between different agents and fields of activity.
In the course of demographic developments and the shortage of skilled workers, care is increasingly being provided in a mixture of services provided by professional carers, relatives, volunteers and voluntary supporters such as friends or neighbours.
This diversity increases the need for coordination. It can also entail new roles and burdens, for example when relatives take on additional coordination tasks.
In this context, the department is investigating the potential for and limitations of assistance provided by digital technologies. On the one hand, this involves coordination and communication in home-based care and support networks.
On the other, the focus is on the role of local authorities and committed civil society in the welfare mix of care and care-related networks in neighbourhoods, social spaces or districts.
We are focussing on new cooperative networks, forms of service or governance formations and their technical support , as well as innovative business and operational concepts for establishing helpful digital technologies.
Another focus is on the co-creative development of social and technical innovations involving their users.
In application-oriented research, development and consulting projects on these topics, we combine sociological, socio-spatial, political and municipal science and business expertise.
We contribute our findings to practice, politics, society and research at local, national and international level.