Klaus R. Kunzmann

An Agenda for Creative Governance in City Regions

Multiple constraints hinder regional institutions and actors to initiate cooperation in city regions. One constraint of future- oriented city region development is the lack of creativity. Since a decade or more, all city regions in Germany are experimenting with some or the other form of inter-governmental cooperation. Some have been successful in establishing regional institutions, others have rather favored informal cooperation agreements or are still struggling to find appropriate ways and means to organize regional cooperation. Too many constraints have to be overcome. Drawing on the experience in Germany, ten suggestions for more creative governance in city regions have been made and briefly sketched. They range from allowing flexible boundaries to the promotion of regional innovation networks, from supporting the Third Sector to the communication of intra-re- gional success stories. Implementing the suggested agenda requires much political good will and strong leadership by visionary politicians and professionals who know how and when to start implementing one or the other item on the above agenda. In particular, it requires multiple creativity: creative institutions and creative actors, creative strategies and creative processes, and creative financing.

The Strategic Dimensions of Knowledge industries in Urban Development

Abstract After the gradual demise of traditional industries in the last quarter of the 20th century, knowledge industries have become the new hope for cities, policy-makers and city development agencies. Though there is much rhetoric about the importance of knowledge industries and knowledge workers in a city, in practice, there are few strategic visions for the development of knowledge spaces. Given the complex spatial logic of knowledge industries, and the great number of stakeholders in planning and related decision-making processes with quite different interests, developing local knowledge industries requires special expertise. This paper addresses six dimensions of developing knowledge spaces in a city and explores the multiple challenges policy-makers are facing when merging city development with knowledge development.

Kulturwirtschaft, kreative Räume und Stadtentwicklung in Berlin

Abstract Recently “creative cities”, “creative class”, “creative industries”, “cultural industries” have become catchwords in urban politics with the intention to increase a city-regions international profile. Therefore, one of the main aims of urban management and economic development is the promotion and fostering of the creative and cultural industries. Using Berlin as a case study, this paper investigates the options and opportunities of categorizing creative urban spaces in order to develop these spaces using targeted development strategies.

A cooperative spatial future for RheinRuhr

As is the case with other metropolitan regions, there are claims that the emerging functional urban region of RheinRuhr needs to develop a cooperative spatial future. This article explores the underlying difficulties in seeking to move forward in regional cooperation and strategic regional development for RheinRuhr. At present, no clear shift can be observed from traditional land use planning and local development approaches towards more strategic planning for the whole urban region. There are still many obstacles to be overcome. Nevertheless, strides have been taken in the direction of improved cooperation. A dense and functionally overlapping (sub)‐regional associationalism seems to be one step towards future city‐regional governance and possibly government. An evaluation is reported of two new innovative modes of structural and regional policies, namely the Regional Conferences and the IBA Emscher Park Planning Company; their impacts on regional policy‐making structures are reviewed. A discussion on more recent approaches to regional cooperation follows. It is argued that, in the long term, as a multi‐regionalized space, RheinRuhr requires some kind of coordinator and moderator and new practices of regional planning and management. The future development of a RheinRuhr metropolitan region requires further steps to be taken towards strategic planning by the Land government as well as a deepening of the level of institutionalization. Some ideas are put forward on how the elaboration of a spatial Leitbild for RheinRuhr could be initiated and supported.

Towards Creative City Region Governance in Italy and Germany

City regions all over Europe are experiencing considerable pressure to rethink regional governance. They are well aware of the necessity of regional cooperation in times of globalization and urban competition. Although they have all experimented with various forms of regional cooperation in the past, no valid European model has emerged so far, which addresses the manifold challenges city regions are facing from Italy to Finland, and Spain to Germany. Scholarly research (Salet et al. 2003; Albrechts et al. 2003) and professional experience shows that in the end each city region in Europe has to find its own solution of how to organize regional cooperation. Italy and Germany are two countries of the European Union with quite different traditions in urban and regional governance. While Italy is characterized by a clear-cut system of multi-tiered planning and decision-making with dynamic local political territories, Germany, being a federal country with powerful states or Länder, independent city-states and politically self-governing local governments, exhibits quite different regional political cultures. Given Italy’s and Germany’s different political and planning cultures, it is worthwhile to explore their different approaches to regional cooperation in city regions, or at last to learn from their respective efforts, their successes and failures. In both countries there is no clear definition of the term “city region”. Although the Federal German Ministry of Transport, Housing and Planning has identified seven metropolitan regions (MURL 1997), while neglecting the city regions of Hanover and Nuremberg, these city regions represent just one possible approach to the definition of city region territories. The city-states (Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin), which have grown over the last decades beyond their traditional boundaries, are forced to seek consensus with the federal states in which they are geographically embedded (Lower Saxony and Brandenburg). Frankfurt/Main is just one city in the conurbation extending over three federal states (Hesse, Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatine). The RheinRuhr agglomeration, with a population of 12 million inhabitants in more than a dozen large cities such as Cologne, Essen or Dortmund, is as big as the conurbations of Paris or London. Stuttgart is surrounded by a large number of economically quite strong and politically independent medium-sized cities, Munich, in turn, is a powerful capital of a very much centralized state, surrounded by a plethora of suburban communities due to the limited development space of the central city. In East Germany, dreams to form a powerful city network made up of Dresden, Leipzig and Halle have not yet materialized. In Italy, the law 142/1990 introduced the Cittá metropolitana as an independent institutional body at the intermediate level between city council and region. Ten Italian city regions received the metropolitan label: Turin, Milan, Venice, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Bari, Naples and Cagliari. This new authority has never been implemented in any of these metropolitan cities, yet the initiative of the Central Government produced some interesting experiments across the country. In a few of these metropolitan cities new modes of governance emerged. As a rule they were initiated from the local government, hence “from the bottom” and were related to particular topics or particular territories within city regions. In recent years we have also seen the emergence of city regions that go far beyond the original concept of metropolitan area. This is particularly true for central Lombardy, where an area of at least five million people (belonging to five provinces and three regions) live in a very integrated pattern, in the Veneto Region, the area between Verona and Venice, in the area of Naples etc. For all these reasons the idea of “city region” is more appropriate than that of “metropolitan city”, and at the same time it raises new governance issues. Comparing Germany and Italy seems particularly valuable because – against a similar legal and institutional background – local and regional planning take on very different roles. Despite some emerging similarities, the role, the routines and approaches, as well as the implementation and financing of planning strategies differ widely between these two countries. However, regional authorities in Italy – comparable to the Länder in Germany – developed quite innovative institutional planning procedures over the last decade, tools and policies, which are worthwhile to be examined and assessed from a German perspective, while the German efforts to cope with city region cooperation may offer some new insights for the Italian debate. As a rule, governance structures cannot be transferred from one country to another one-to-one. However, there is much room for mutual learning, from failures as from successes. In November 2004, a colloquium “Creativity and Urban Governance in European City Regions” will take place at the Villa Vigoni, the Italian-German Centre of Cultural Exchange at Lake Como in Italy. The colloquium will focus on the elements, capacities, and legal as well as financial tools for city region cooperation. It will discuss the ways and means to initiate and maintain creative and effective governance within city regions in both countries, and the role local and regional institutions, planners and groups of civil society will have to play. It will particularly aim at bridging the information gap between the two countries. Six dimensions of creative regional governance will be discussed at the symposium:

Planning education in a globalized world

Abstract Five aspects of planning education at the turn of the century are discussed in this comment on Leonie Sandercocks well argued paper. The dominance of English as lingua franca and the advance of the Anglo‐American approach to planning education in a globalizing world are seen as facts which give long standing regional traditions in other cultures little chance to transfer their experience and knowledge to the English speaking planning world. Despite global convergence in planning and planning education the adaptation to regional characteristics is still essential to move from knowledge to action in urban and regional development. Training students to develop creative competence is considered as a crucial and indispensable component in planning education. However, returning to physical planning and urban design as taught in many European schools, is considered to be deadly for the future of planning schools in Europe. This danger and the never‐ending departmental disputes among planners coming fro...

Medium-Sized Towns, Strategic Planning and Creative Governance

Medium-sized towns located beyond metropolitan regions in Europe are among the victims of the current metropolitan fever in Europe. Despite all political rhetoric and European efforts to promote territorial cohesion, regions outside metropolitan regions are and will continue to be effected by globalising forces and strong regional competition. While future oriented creative and knowledge industries flourish in a few metropolitan regions and in the core of Europe, regions and towns beyond such conurbations, and in the periphery of Europe, are increasingly struggling to maintain their economic, social and cultural functions. Medium-sized towns in such regions are particularly hit by the increasingly competitive global economy. In order to secure employment and to maintain their service function for a stagnating regional population, these medium-sized towns are forced to find their own profile between international orientation and local embeddedness.

Entwicklungsperspektiven ländlicher Räume in Zeiten des Metropolenfiebers

Abstract In recent years, metropolitan megions have become the preferred focus of spatial planners and policy-makers in Germany and beyond. In times of globalization and regional competition, all economic development seems to occur in metropolitan regions, while rural regions are gradually losing economically, with considerable consequences for social infrastructures and connectivity. However, rural regions in Europe are far from Being a homogeneous territorial category, whether they are on the periphery or just adjacent to metropolitan regions. Experience in four different european rural regions(Muhlenkreis Minden-Lubecke and region altmark in Germany, and the regions Wrexham in Wales and sardinia in Italy) has shown that functionally different categories of rural regions need to be defined to streamline rural development strategies to the particular needs of The different regions. The paper suggests three types of rural regions: rural regions adjacent to metropolitan regions, rural regions in-between me...

Crisis and urban planning? A commentary

ABSTRACT The author argues that the global financial crisis of 2008 did not have any lasting effect on planners. Though the crisis has stirred much political attention, it is not the crisis that has caused the decline of planning. It is rather the mainstream neo-liberal politico-economic environment that is weakening planning in society. Thus, remaining cocooned in planning theory circles and debating about the crisis will not raise the influence of planners in the real world. Planners have to acknowledge that it is not in their hands to reduce the social disparities in market-led environments. Critical planners can only articulate their concerns about growing welfare gaps; and they can mobilize the discourse about disparities, equity and social responsibility. Benefiting from the existence and influence of social media they can raise their voice, engage in activist planning initiatives, and try to convince opinion leaders and multipliers in other policy fields. They should encourage debates within the planning community about future challenges to the profession in a market-led and re-nationalizing Europe, where national egoisms dominate urban and regional policies and where Europe as a common idea is regrettably vanishing.

Creativity in Planning: a Fuzzy Concept?

Abstract In recent years, all around the world, Europe, America, Asia, creativity has become a buzz word m urban and regional policy. Cities and regions have to be “creative” (Landry 2000) in order to cope with the challenges of technological and structural change, to be competitive or to qualify as locations for the new creative class (Florida 2000). Creative industries are considered the engine for future economic development and the salvation for run-down inner city quarters, brownfields or first-generation suburbs. Business consultants earn their fees by stressing creativity as the most essential condition for the success of innovative businesses. Hence, it is not surprising that “creativity” has become a much used term m urban and regional policies. The following essay presents findings on creativity without the ambition to bring clarity into a concept, which is open for further interpretation. It is rather an invitation to creative thinking and action m planning.