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This paper first examines the current state of research in the field of social and spatial polarization and social mixing in urban areas. Urban studies have dealt intensively with social polarization in selected neighborhoods as well as with the political actions necessary to allow for social neighborhood mixtures. Second, the article presents empirical evidence of social polarization and mixing processes in Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Germany. In the last decade, structural changes in the population have taken place in Bonn-Bad Godesberg due to moving the German capital from Bonn to Berlin. A growing ethnic and socio-economic heterogeneity can be observed on a small scale. Based on data provided by the Office of Statistics of the City of Bonn, the empirical survey suggests that polarization has occurred rather than a balanced mixture. Our results show significant changes in the local socio-economic and ethnic characteristics of the district, which indicates a tendency towards increasing polarization and decreasing social mixing. The paper finally concludes that a process of creeping polarization is taking place in Bad Godesberg that demonstrates the associated challenges, risks, and opportunities for local development. English title: Creeping Polarization: Social and Spatial Changes in Bonn-Bad Godesberg after the German Government's Move to Berlin [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does an average, aging society deal with the challenges of climatic and demographic change? In reality, the effects vary regionally. This paper explores how an urban society responds to the challenge of increasing summer temperatures using the example of Aachen, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The research started with the perception of heat in the working and living environment of older and thus particularly vulnerable residents. As actors of urban development actively influence living and working conditions, their projected need for action is compared to the results of a survey of the residents. It clearly showed that demographic, socio-cultural, spatial, and construction factors affected the perceptions of the residents. Climate change awareness and possible adaptation measures usually exist, but, in general, initiatives are only taken if the effect is noticed by an individual. Although not all residents and stakeholders of Aachen perceived heat waves as a problem, a variety of adaptation strategies could be established. They ranged from aspired lifestyle over individual and short-term behavioral changes to urban planning, architectural and technical measures. These measures can be used to raise awareness of climate issues and implement adaptation strategies. Thereby, all stakeholders and residents, employers and employees, homeowners and tenants, planners, architects and developers, investors and users, etc., are asked to take responsibility within their field. English title: Adjustment through Acceptance – The Approach of Local Actors to Summer Heat Waves [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use data from a longitudinal study to draw a realistic picture of the housing conditions and future potential of large housing estates with a focus on demographic change. In doing so, we plead for a broader look at demographic dynamics: going beyond ageing and population loss to encompass changes of household size and compositions or diverse mobility patterns. Our empirical results, generated in the large housing estate of Leipzig-Grünau in eastern Germany, show huge changes in the demographic characteristics of estate residents within just 30 years, especially faster aging, a steep decline in household size, and a rapidly growing share of one-person households. Years of outmigration have caused a massive overall population loss that only recently came to a halt. Nevertheless, we are also able to provide evidence that a wide range of demographic groups still live in this estate and appreciate the living conditions in terms of housing, service facilities and recreation areas. The changes in household and age structures produce particular housing demands (appropriate apartments and services), which could be broadly satisfied within the large housing estate due to existing diverse residential offers for various housing needs. In conclusion, we argue that large housing estates have an important but underestimated potential to meet housing demand under the conditions of demographic change. Furthermore, the demographic challenges discussed here can be seen as important for other residential areas too. English title: Large Housing Estates as a Flexible Space for Demographic Change – Selected results of a long-term study of the large housing estates of Leipzig-Grünau focusing on the potential of an underestimated type of neighborhood [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventy years after the insurrection of Spanish military forces against the democratically elected government of the Second Republic, several political, cultural and scientific initiatives have set out to reinforce the historical memory of the Spanish Civil War. An objective historical debate about the war was impossible in Spain under the Franco regime and quite difficult during the transition period to a democratic state because of the ongoing conflict between Francoists and democrats, which led to an attempted military coup against the new Spanish democracy in 1981. The stable democracy Spain now enjoys allows us to revisit the history of the Civil War from a republican and democratic point of view, in order finally to offer a just remembrance of the war's victims on the Republican side, something which has been neglected for decades. This paper explores the representation of the Spanish Civil War in children's drawings, which were collected by several institutions, among them the Biblioteca Nacional de Espana. The existence and preservation of these drawings is the result of unique circumstances. The Spanish Civil War was the first conflict in which modern arms were intentionally used against the civil population on a large scale, so that children became eyewitnesses of military attacks. The government of the Republic organised the evacuation of the civilian population, especially children, from the war zones, using an existing system of school colonies. Guided by their educators, these children started to reflect on their new experiences - the bombardments, the evacuation, the separation from their parents, but also the games, lessons and other activities in the school colonies - in their drawings. These drawings had a double purpose. On the one hand, they were designed as a therapeutic measure to help the children to overcome the traumas produced by the war. On the other hand, these drawings were used as propaganda in order to convince the Western democracies to support the legitimate Spanish government and to stop their policy of non-intervention, which only favoured the military rebels and their supporters, National-socialist Germany and Fascist Italy. Today, the children's drawings of the Spanish Civil War represent a valuable and direct testimony of different aspects of this conflict: life before the war, the breakdown of the Lebenswelt of the children, the presence of the war in daily life, humanitarian support and evacuation, organisation and life in the school colonies and the politicisation of the children. Nowadays, children who suffer the horrors of war continue to draw their experiences. The only difference with the drawings of the children of the Spanish Civil War is that today there is more blood, weapons are more powerful, and society is indifferent and has become accustomed to coexisting with injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]