The concept of ‘polycentric spatial development’, a central principle of the European Spatial Development Perspective, is closely linked to the concept of ‘sustainable urban development’. But ‘polycentricity’ has different significance at different spatial scales. Within a European...

Regional development, and crossborder cooperation in particular, needs feedbacks on the impacts of public policies. Policy evaluation is one appropriate tool. The ?hidden hypothesis'- approach is characterized by two elements: (1) an emphasis on the invisible goals of an evaluated programme or...

Corporate strategies and decisions concerning location, such as outsourcing of individual production processes, have an impact on the volume of freight traffic. Due to concentration of core competences, new logistics trends, growing importance of services and liberalization of markets, corporate...

Mega-City-Regions (MCR) as a new large-scale urban phenomenon have been gaining attention recently: In research, empirical studies address their functional consistency, and spatial planning policies underline the strategic role of MCRs for territorial competition of a country. But increasingly a...

In the wake of a general process of economic transformation public services in recent years have undergone a number of radical changes. Under the key word of ?liberalization? the markets of public services in Europe have been opened up to market competition. Questions of efficiency and...

From 1975 to 1995, the Swiss franc appreciated in a near constant manner compared with the currencies of all of the country's commercial partners. This paper will seek to demonstrate that the various regions in Switzerland evolve differently when faced with a continuously appreciating currency....

Only since the early 1990s, when unemployment rates in Switzerland soared to unprecedented levels, has federal technology and innovation policy begun to design their activities with regard to employment and the establishment of new firms. Now, all across the country, private as well as public...

In 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, 179 countries agreed on three declarations including Agenda 21. The concept of Sustainable Development (SD) became a triumph in both speeches and potential concepts. The various meanings of ‘sustainable development’ led to a confusion of Babylonian proportions. The...