| Project Detail |
Understanding and managing the ex-urban shift
The rapid urbanisation during the Fourth Industrial Revolution has been accompanied by an unexpected phenomenon: a growing migration of millennials, dubbed ‘digital natives’, from urban to non-urban areas. Heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, this exodus is creating a significant cultural impact on non-urban regions as these ex-urbanites bring their digital capital and creative lifestyles to new surroundings. With the support of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme, the HL-EXURB project will carry out digital research and ethnographic studies in a Turkish ex-urban community. By implementing a novel cultural impact analysis in three European non-urban areas, the project will offer innovative insights and tools to understand and manage the repercussions of this transformative trend.
"The so-called fourth industrial revolution, with its transformation of economic production and social life, has coincided with the further urbanization of the world population. At the same time, however, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, an intriguing migration from urban to non-urban areas seems to be emerging. Millennials in particular—a group of the population now between their late 20s and 30s and known as ""digital natives""—are leaving the city. With their new lifestyles forming at the nexus of urban, rural, and digital spatialities, these ex-urbanites are altering non-urban places due to their cultural, creative, and digital capital. Combining digital research with an ethnographic study of the ex-urban community settled in Turkey, this research will explore new hybrid lifestyles created by ex-urbanites and examine their cultural impact on non-urban areas. Additionally, by implementing the cultural impact analysis in three different European non-urban areas, this research will offer an innovative design of cultural impact analysis for non-urban areas. A significant impact beyond academia will be created through the proposed workshop and the toolkit. WP1 identifies the lifestyle practices, values, and amenities of exurbanites. WP2 explores how ex-urbanites lifestyles connect urban, rural, and digital spaces. WP3 determines cultural impact indicators for non-urban areas, and WP4 implements the cultural impact analysis in three different non-urban areas of Europe. WP5–7 constitute project management tasks, training, and dissemination activities." |
