NAUMANN, Matthias | Germany

Matthias Naumann is a doctoral candidate at the Geography department at the University of Potsdam, Germany. He received a Diploma in Geography at Humboldt-University in Berlin. His research focuses on the transition of technical infrastructure systems, mainly water supply and wastewater disposal, and regional development in East Germany. He is completing his doctoral thesis on the impact of demographic change on water infrastructures in peripheral rural regions.

Since 2002 he is research assistant at the Leibniz-Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning (IRS) in Erkner and participated in different research projects on the transformation of urban infrastructure. Since 2006 Matthias Naumann is one fellow of the graduate program “Demographic change” of the four Leibniz Institutions involved in spatial science (4R Competence Network). Furthermore he is Guest lecturer at the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus and at the University of Hamburg.

 
Abstract at IAS-STS: At the end of the pipe…Transformation of water infrastructure systems in rural East Germany.

Drinking water supply and wastewater disposal in East Germany are confronted with two developments: Firstly, they are challenged by the general transformation of the German water market, leading to more private sector involvement and commercialisation of municipal companies. Secondly, shrinking processes in cities and regions not only but in most parts of East Germany cause new problems for water infrastructure. Population decline and less economic activities lead to decreasing demand for water services. In consequence, water supply and wastewater disposal systems have to deal with technical, economic and institutional problems because of massive overcapacities. Water companies are faced with rising costs for system adaptation while the number of consumers and revenues are declining. Rising fees for water services in shrinking cities and regions provoke harsh protests of local tenants and house owners.

The interconnection of water market transformation and shrinking processes could turn water supply and wastewater disposal into a medium of regional disparities enhancing differences in the quality of life and regional competitiveness. Water infrastructures, originally an instrument for regional cohesion, could turn to an additional disadvantage especially for rural regions and lead to new and regional forms of “Splintering Urbanism” (Graham & Marvin). The paper asks for the infrastructural dimensions of uneven development in East Germany but also for spaces of hope creating new forms of environmentally and socially water management.

Selected Publications

Moss, Timothy; Naumann, Matthias; Wissen, Markus (eds) (2008): Infrastrukturnetze und Raumentwicklung. Zwischen Universalisierung und Differenzierung. München (in print).

Naumann, Matthias (2008): Die Wasserwirtschaft unter den Bedingungen des demographischen Wandels: Privatisierungen und Kommerzialisierungen in schrumpfenden Regionen in Ostdeutschland. In: Wasserkolloquium (Hrsg.): Wasser: Die Kommerzialisierung eines öffentlichen Gutes. Berlin: 45-58.

Moss, Timothy; Naumann, Matthias (2007): Neue Räume der Wasserbewirtschaftung – Anpassungsstrategien der Kommunen. In: Haug, Peter; Rosenfeld, Martin T. W. (eds.): Die Rolle der Kommunen in der Wasserwirtschaft. Hallesches Kolloquium zur kommunalen Wirtschaft 2005. Baden-Baden: 139-160

Wissen, Markus; Naumann, Matthias (2006): A New Logic of Infrastructure Supply: The Commercialization of Water and the Transformation of Urban Governance in Germany. In: Social Justice 33(03): 20-37.

Bernt, Matthias; Naumann, Matthias (2006): Wenn der Hahn zu bleibt – Wasserversorgung in schrumpfenden Städten. In: Frank, Susanne; Gandy, Matthew (eds.): Hydropolis. Wasser und die Stadt der Moderne. Frankfurt am Main, New York: 210-229.