Actually, this was supposed to be a completely different article. I wanted to present the ideas and principles associated with the topic of “regional networks”, what constitutes a regional network, what sustainable opportunities regional networks offer – and what successful and innovative regional networks already exist. And this in different industries and areas. I wanted to supplement the whole thing with statements from experts who could tell us something about the development, spread and future prospects of regional networks. But then everything turned out differently than expected…

What interested me from the beginning were the negative consequences of the ever-expanding interconnectedness of our global economy on the environment. The things we buy, use and consume today are usually the result of global production and supply chains. And everywhere we hear that this form of economy produces not only advantages and favorable prices, but also enormous consequential costs for the environment. My world and that of the people around me had also just become much smaller during the Corona crisis: No face-to-face teaching in the university, home office, no traveling…. And in front of me were books from the degrowth movement, which has long advocated a decline in growth as a sustainable form of economy and society. So I began to wonder if regional networks, where goods, products and services are created locally, could be a competitive alternative to global, growth-oriented production networks. Short distances, on-site know-how building, strengthening the local economy…. Actually, I expect that such associations of local players should be booming. All I have to do is discover them and describe how they work. Firmly convinced that there are already many regional networks and that I only needed to find the most exciting examples, I started researching – and …
… got into real trouble. My search grid was regional networks in German-speaking countries, consisting of at least 4-7 local partner institutions that have joined forces with the common goal of creating something that is competitive and can replace offerings with globally networked manufacturing processes, at least to a small extent – even with a price premium for higher environmental standards, personnel costs, etc., if I want. In contrast to large regional industrial clusters, of which there are several in Germany in particular, be it car production in southern German regions or the media industry in Cologne. But the longer I searched, the more my initial euphoria faded. Mergers that I found were either too small to be considered networks or – and this was mostly the case – they were in the “intention” stage. People gave the mergers exciting names and self-descriptions – but met de facto only to exchange information. Some other local networks (e.g. in the field of waste recycling) had come into being at times through governmental or European funding, but this had expired years ago without the projects leaving any traceable results or further traces.
As a result, I began to doubt myself and my research skills and sought advice from leading experts who are considered forward thinkers and audible voices of a degrowth, buy-local and common good economy movement. I formulated beautiful cover letters asking for help in finding appropriate networks that are active in whatever sector and establish local processes and structures. I asked for interviews and expert statements, explaining that I was looking everywhere but couldn’t find any examples far and wide that met my criteria. And got no answer at all …
My last attempt was then, in my search for regional networks, to tap into the network of which I myself have become a part – the UW/H alumni network – even though I am “only” an orientation student. After talking to Domenik Treß, from the new UW/H networking office, and Sebastian Benkhofer, who is also responsible for UW/H alumni management, I found an exciting example in the area that is probably the most developed in Germany in terms of regional networking: namely, agriculture. I was able to talk to UW/H alumnus Jakob Fels, who has launched the networking initiative “Tiny Farms” around Berlin.
Talking to him, I finally got some momentum. Because he reported that there have always been and still are regional mergers and alliances in agriculture – and that this is precisely where he would try to establish modern forms of regional networking. His “Tiny Farms” model aims to network regional micro-farms in and around Berlin that grow organic vegetables and fruit into a virtual large-scale farm in order to be able to operate in an ecologically sustainable and at the same time competitive manner. Admittedly, I was initially shocked again when I learned from him that Tiny Farms also consists of only two farm units so far. But then I realized how well this in particular supports my previous findings – and I was able to ask Jakob Fels about the reason why regional networks are much less widespread and developed than one would expect. His answer: “We started two years ago from the problem that there are relatively few regional organic vegetables and fruit here in Berlin, although organic and especially regionality are absolute megatrends at the moment. And we found that this problem actually exists in all regions. Everywhere, farms are getting bigger and bigger, while more and more individual small farms have to give up, sell or close down. The number of farmers and professionals who still want to work on small units is rapidly declining. At the same time, interest in horticulture, gardening and natural food is growing among people in the region. And that’s what we want to harness for agriculture and regional cultivation.”