This paper discusses current challenges, expectations and practices related to an increasingly applied normative concept, namely that of planning to become (or to maintain) a 'polycentric' metropolitan area. Based on findings provided by a group of spatial planners from 12 metropolitan areas...

This paper investigates the first ever so-called ‘macroregional strategy’ developed under the aegis of the European Commission: the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR). Through a drawing together of elements of actor-network theory and regionalization theory, it is...

Knapp W. and Schmitt P. Discourse on 'metropolitan driving forces' and 'uneven development': Germany and the RhineRuhr conurbation, Regional Studies. This paper provides a contribution to the debate on re-scaling and uneven development from the point of view of the governance of spatial...

Polycentricity is one of the key words coined by the ESDP in 1999 to frame strategic planning at the transnational level. In recent years, however, the concept of polycentricity (and its inherent expectations) has increasingly trickled down as well to the regional level. The paper stems from...

Currently social and political constructed urban regions are about to approach a threefold role regarding their functional, economic and political function. At first they constitute a basis for economic and social life. What is next is their role as a vital relational asset to refine competitive...