Limited resources and demographic developments are posing increasing challenges for formal and non-formal education infrastructures in European  municipalities. In a 2025 survey, 90% of the mayors of German cities surveyed rated the budgetary situation of their municipality as “poor” to “very poor” (Deutscher Städtetag, 2025). At the same time, demographic trends are leading to a labor shortage across Europe. The German "baby boomer" generation will reach retirement age by 2036 (Deschmeier & Schäfer, 2024). Additionally, digitalization is leading to powerful transformations in various industries, sectors, states, and societies through wider social, political, and economic dynamics (Williamson et al., 2024). These developments are particularly evident in medium-sized towns, where they encounter already limited financial, technical, and human resources, yet remain underrepresented in research on educational and social transformation processes (Förster et al., 2024). 

The linking of learning spaces in the form of cooperation between formal and non-formal educational institutions could be one way of responding to these developments by creating synergies, coordinating provision, and adapting to current local problems. The objective of this study is to discover how formal and non-formal educational actors conceptualize and justify collaborations under conditions of limited resources and which municipality-specific conditions shape the sustainability of cooperative arrangements.

Within the framework of local self-government, German municipalities traditionally perform central administrative tasks in the areas of education and social services by providing child and youth welfare services, adult education centers, and libraries. Although local authorities bear approximately half of the costs per pupil per school year for the provision and maintenance of buildings, they have only limited influence on the structure and quality of the education offered. This has been changing since the beginning of the 21st century, partly due to Germany's poor performance in the PISA study. Since then, numerous federal and state municipal education programs, such as “Lernende Regionen” (learning regions) and “Lernen vor Ort” (local education management initiatives) have strengthened the role of local authorities (BMBF, 2022).

The programs described each have different focuses and, despite structural and financial links, are autonomous in nature. They should be seen as a response to the increasing key role played by local authorities in shaping educational institutions and as a hub for education policy, which is credited with contributing to holistic educational landscapes, greater educational equity, more successful educational biographies, and the fight against local educational disadvantage and discrimination (Brüggemann et al., 2023).  

At the same time as these developments, ever more far-reaching development processes are leading to individuals demanding ever new knowledge in the use of digital technology and the skills required in an increasingly complex society, such as systematic thinking, responsible action, creativity, and innovation (WGBU, 2019). This has led to an increase in the importance of non-formal educational opportunities, which enable independent action, self-organization, and abstraction, thereby counteracting the risk of social inequality being reproduced through the “digital divide” (Kersting, 2025). Despite this increasing relevance, non-formal education programs are not treated equally to formal education in terms of educational monitoring, credit transfer, validation of acquired skills, and availability of longitudinal data, which makes it difficult to recognize non-formal knowledge. Historically, schools in Germany have been weakly embedded in local educational networks (Baumheier & Warsewa, 2009).

The dissertation therefore takes a critical and reflective perspective on cooperation between formal and non-formal educational programs in order to do justice to the claim that education is a shared social responsibility. The focus is on medium-sized urban structures that face particular challenges in times of transformative developments relevant across European contexts.

The Comparative Case Study (Bartlett & Vavrus, 2017) uses a mixed-methods approach that incorporates document analysis (Flick, 2019), secondary analysis (Medjedović, 2014), and expert interviews (Mayring, 2022). The design integrates horizontal, vertical and transversal comparisons to capture actors, governance levels and historical dynamics. This design is particularly suitable for a holistic view of a small number of cases. Two medium-sized towns in different German states were selected as case studies, as they both exhibit particularly typical characteristics (30,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, Importance for the surrounding area) and offer maximum variation (administrative status, proximity to the nearest big city, population density). They therefore provide the ideal framework as a subject of investigation. First, a document analysis of institutionalized cooperation between formal and non-formal educational programs in the two cities will be conducted. This will provide new perspectives on the field of research and the processes within it, in this case the cooperation between formal and non-formal educational programs at the local level. Secondly, the interviews conducted as part of the “Educational Infrastructures in Medium-Sized Towns” (Becker et al., 2025) project by the DFG research group “Digital Medium-Sized Towns of the Future” will be evaluated using secondary analysis. The focus here is on the question of what kinds of cooperation between formal and non-formal education actors the interviewed managers from kindergartens, schools, libraries, museums, and education administrations report on. Thirdly, to supplement the existing data, further interviews will be conducted with experts from non-formal institutions such as sports clubs, religious communities, museums, and volunteer organizations such as the fire department. The interview guide is divided into the categories “Forms of cooperation,” “Local political incentives,” “Digitization processes,” “Opportunities and challenges,” “Sustainable institutionalization,” and “Significance for educational inequality”. Finally, the results are classified according to the concept of educational infrastructures (Bücker et al., 2023) with its material-structural, institutional-organizational, normative-cultural, and interactive-cooperative dimensions. The aim here is to find out how cooperation actually works under real conditions, such as limited resources and digitization processes. The challenges lie in particular in gaining access to stakeholders with limited time resources and in setting aside one's own preconceptions.

International and European organizations and strategies emphasize the importance of linking formal and non-formal learning environments, viewing cooperation as a key prerequisite for lifelong learning and greater educational equity. Formal and non-formal educational opportunities fulfill complementary functions. While formal education is more strongly linked to curricula, certificates, and institutions, non-formal educational opportunities offer flexible, real-world, and skills-oriented learning opportunities. Local authorities often play a key role in coordinating cooperation by acting as an interface between educational actors, education policy, and socio-spatial conditions. Towns in many European regions face challenges due to limited financial and human resources and demographic changes. Cooperation is seen as a possible response to this and should be viewed in the context of the opportunities for networking and coordination created by digitalization, as well as the greater need for control and coordination. However, it remains unclear how these collaborations will be specified and implemented, because the research perspective is programmatic in nature. There is a need for empirical insights into how formal and non-formal actors perceive, evaluate, and justify cooperation, and what municipality-specific characteristics, differences, and path dependencies become apparent. This work closes this research gap by taking a qualitative, empirical approach that considers cooperation between formal and non-formal education actors in a context-specific and multidimensional manner. The comparative case study in two medium-sized towns takes into account the different municipal conditions. Methodological triangulation, including theory-driven qualitative content analysis based on the educational governance perspective, will supplement the programmatic objectives by providing insights into practical implementation. The aim is to identify types of cooperation, highlight blind spots in municipal education programs, and further develop the concept of education infrastructures for medium-sized towns. I am currently evaluating the interviews using qualitative content analysis and would appreciate some feedback on what I need to bear in mind.

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