RhineRuhr

Towards compatibility? Strategic spatial policies for a specific configuration of polycentricity

authored by

Wolfgang Knapp, Peter Schmitt, Rainer Danielzyk

Abstract

Concepts of polycentricity and networks take a central place in current thinking about the restructuring of urban regions. This academic discourse will be sketched in view of the search for synergies within the polycentric urban region RhineRuhr. The notion of synergy, which makes the whole network of cities more than the sum of its parts, will be discussed in the light of a fuzzy strategic concept that qualifies RhineRuhr as a 'metropolitan region' constituting a critical mass for international competitiveness on the one hand, but hardly any steps to implement this option on the other. In the final section, therefore, some ideas will be put forward to make regional strategic policies more compatible with both the problems of the specific polycentric structure of RhineRuhr as well as the latent synergetic potentials within this region.

External Organisation(s)

ILS - Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development
TU Dortmund University
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg

Type

Article

Journal

Built Environment

Volume

32

Pages

137-147

No. of pages

11

ISSN

0263-7960

Publication date

2006

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geography, Planning and Development, Urban Studies

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.32.2.137 (Access: Unknown)