TOWN & COUNTRY

DEAR READERS OF RUPERTO CAROLA,

the latest edition of our research journal explores the central subject of TOWN & COUNTRY. Global cities, metropolitan regions and small villages: the spaces in habited and used by humans are subject to constant change. We are all driven by the question of how and where we want to live in the future. What are the con sequences of demographic change for our housing and living conditions? How can we create opportunities that allow all of us to live a self-determined life, regardless of the continent of our birth or whether we hail from a city or rural community? 

RUPERTO CAROLA wants to offer new ideas and ways of thinking about this nearly inexhaustible subject by showing, for instance, that the place in which we grow up – a city or the country – affects our brain and thereby our susceptibility to mental disorders. Other questions investigated by Heidelberg researchers of various disciplines deal with health promotion in communities, the effects of mass layoffs on the communities concerned and the increasing urbanisation far away from large cities.

The subject of TOWN & COUNTRY is of interest not just to the geographers of our University, but also to economists, environmental physicists, classical philo logists, musicologists and psychoepidemiologists.Town and country are spaces that we want to open up to research and critical thought with the articles in our research journal. I wish you an inspiring and rewarding reading experience!

Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Bernhard Eitel
President of Heidelberg University

Issue 12 · July 2018