Abstract: The urban region of Vienna (Stadtregion+) is among the most dynamic growth regions in Europe. The management of the population growth poses extensive challenges for the city and its hinterland requiring a common and coordinated procedure. The urban regional cooperation structures are currently weakly institutionalised and barely defined. Against this background, this paper aims at presenting recommendations for the development of informal-cooperative spatial development processes in city regions on an analytical and instrumental level. The theoretical framework is based on a combination of the concept of strategic planning and the approach of soft spaces. The methods include the analysis of functional interconnections, a network analysis as well as the calculation of an interconnection index. By means of the “paradox of interconnection and cooperation” the totally different structures of the city-regional functional interconnections and the inter-municipal cooperation are shown on an analytical level. On an instrumental level, the planning principle of “flexible regionalisation” is presented, which draws upon and further develops the idea of spatial and temporal flexibility in strategic planning. A central element of this principle is the identification of “urban-regional focus areas” defined as specific areas within the urban region. These focus areas are characterised as soft planning spaces, in which to work on common planning and development challenges in an inter-municipal, cooperative and implementation-oriented manner. The applied methods and its findings are critically reflected and discussed, before deriving Vienna-specific and general policy recommendations. PubDate: Sat, 06 Jun 2020 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Civic engagement faces major challenges, especially in cities affected by declining populations, as social networks have been thinned out and services in the sector of voluntary municipal compulsory tasks have been reduced. At the same time, civic engagement is particularly important in such cities in order to compensate for bottlenecks in services of general interest. This paper examines the life worlds of voluntarily engaged people and aims to contribute to an understanding of the different levels of involvement of certain groups of people in certain phases of life. On the basis of project histories in civic engagement, initiated by younger groups of people, the obstacles and needs experienced by those involved are highlighted. The findings show that bureaucratic and hierarchical hurdles, low appreciation of voluntary work and conflicts of interest between funding bodies and those involved are perceived by the latter as major obstacles. On the other hand, there are individual factors of civic engagement that are in harmony with the conditions of the life worlds of those voluntarily active, such as working together, an open, flexible framework for individual action and its flexible division and organisation. The paper is based on empirical data collected in individual case analyses in the small town Weißwasser in Eastern Germany. PubDate: Mon, 11 May 2020 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Building on current debates on digitalisation and spatial development processes, this paper aims to explore to what extent digitally enhanced production technologies, such as Industry 4.0, enable the emergence of new forms of urban production. Based on theoretical and conceptual considerations, empirical insights are derived from 41 interviews conducted with experts in eight industrial cities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The results indicate that the commercial application of new digital production technologies instigates novel forms of hybrid digital urban manufacturing which change patterns of previous value creation. The paper develops a more precise understanding of these value creation processes and the locational embeddedness of hybrid digital urban manufacturing. PubDate: Fri, 10 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: New sanitary systems are an intelligent way to approach wastewater management in the face of demographic and climatic changes. It is also compatible with the emerging paradigm of a resource-oriented management of wastewater. While the general technical applicability of resource-oriented systems has been proven in various projects, the realisation is still on hold. The reasons can be found in several risks for wastewater disposal companies that are linked to the implementation process. Based on an analysis of the general context of an implementation of a new sanitary system in a typical rural area of Eastern Germany, this paper analyses to which extend the implementation of such innovative approaches can be facilitated by the regulation system and which steps need to be taken. According to this aim, risks that can hamper the transformation of the wastewater sector are identified, major administrative controlling mechanisms outlined and depicted in which strategic approach these could be used in order to foster the implementation of resource-oriented sanitary systems. As a result, the feasibility of the implementation of new alternative sanitary systems through the strategic application of the controlling mechanisms is generally proven. However, collaborations of the wastewater sectors with stakeholders of other sectors are required. PubDate: Sat, 28 Mar 2020 00:00:00 GMT
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