Urban Habitat and Humanities - open access and print series

The climate crisis is an urgent problem because it is existential. This statement is banal, but it has to be at the beginning. It is only a matter of time before the costs of anthropogenic climate change will storm away and wash away all the benefits of carbon-fossil fuel prosperity. Not to mention the predicted suffering of people. So the calls get louder: Metanoia! Repentance! The much-discussed fundamental change in our entire life, primarily affects its energetic basis, resulting in the understanding of mobility, concepts of urban living, working and urban resilience strategies. Geographically, climate protection must be global at all levels, which is also a banal statement because it has often been said and written for three decades, but has not yet been acted out. But such a radical change, which at first glance challenges Téchne and thus seems to legitimize the natural sciences as the leading sciences, must not forget one thing: cultural heritage. And for this, the cultural and human sciences are the leading sciences. What mankind has created must not be sacrificed for technical and pragmatic reasons. However, from a reduced perspective of climate protection, cultural heritage seems to be more of a disruptive factor: It promotes mobility because of tourism and thus CO2 emissions. In relation to old buildings, their energy consumption cannot be conveyed prima vista. So a simple calculation was: Get rid of it! Tear down the cathedrals of the past and build energetically sensible and CO2-neutral.

Climate research, especially urbanity research as well as the broad field of urban resilience, can only produce limited knowledge if the humanities and cultural sciences are left out. If climate research is to succeed, and it must succeed, it must be a transdisciplinary project. All scientific disciplines must be in constant exchange with politics, business, NGOs and cultural workers. Cultural and human sciences are anything but irrelevant in these processes. The question: What contribution can cultural heritage in its broadest sense and history make to sustainable and resilient urban development is the focus of this book series.

Stefan Lindl:

Prof. Dr. Stefan Lindl is a historian with a focus on regional climate history, authenticity research, historically argued urban development and urban resilience. He teaches and researches at the University of Augsburg at the Chair for European Regional History and Bavarian and Swabian Regional History.

The print version is published by PubliQation. It is available via book shops online and on the high street.

The online version of this series is available free of charge via the institutional repository, OPUS.