European cities have for decades found themselves in a phase of important changes. Concomitantly multi-level and multi-actor policy processes have unfolded in the EU. Sub-national governments are facing new challenges as their manufacturing industry withers away, still more responsibility for matching the globalisation ch- lenges such as welfare, employment and general social improvements are tra- ferred from national to sub-national levels. This raises speci? c governance problems for city regions in their attempt to meet the demand from the emerging knowled- based society. Yet, no city or city region exists in a vacuum; they are all embedded in national settings with speci? c structures and traditions as well as different p- ceptions of challenges, needs and solutions. It appears that a general, neoliberal discourse has conquered the political agenda during the last one or two decades: That economic regeneration requires increasing competitiveness achieved by - forced stress on knowledge intensive industries, which itself needs more and better education. However, the implementation of such a strategy has many forms and the realities are often quite a step from the intended outcome. During the last three years, a group of about forty people has met regularly across Europe to develop the ideas as originally presented in the Memorandum of Und- standing, setting the agenda for the analysis of preconditions, strategies and o- comes among different cities in their effort to reconcile welfare and growth.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Discourses and Conceptualizations of Competitiveness and Cohesion. - Cities Between Competitiveness and Cohesion: Discourses, Realities and Implementation Introduction. - Competitiveness and Cohesion: A Janus Head? Some Conceptual Clarifications. - Analyzing the Competitiveness of Cities and Regions. - Are Entrepreneurial Cities More Successful? Empirical Evidence from 50 German Cities. - Competitiveness and Cohesion in the Spanish Provinces: A Territorial Approach. - Globalizing Urban Economies and Social Inequality: An Empirical Assessment. The Case of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. - The Conditional Nature of Relations Between Competitiveness, Social Cohesion and Spatial Inequalities: The Evidence from Istanbul. - Detecting Social Cohesion in Cities and Regions. - Immigration and the Spatial (Dis)Equilibrium of Competitiveness Cohesion in Athens. - Labour Migration and Social Cohesion Some Empirical Evidence from Vienna. - From Survival to Competition? The Socio-Spatial Evolution of Turkish Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Antwerp. - Maribor Housing Strategies in a Slovenian City Linking Competitiveness with Social Cohesion. - Practice of the Competitiveness and Cohesion Discourse in Urban and Regional Development. - Sustainable Urban Regeneration in a Global City The Regeneration of Paddington Basin. - Finnish Urban Districts New Actors in Multi-Level Governance. - Reconciling Competitiveness and Social Cohesion in Urban Regions The Role of Transport Policy. - Positioning Bratislava in an Emerging Cross-Border Metropolitan Area. - Reconciling Competitiveness and Cohesion Conclusions. - Conclusions Competitiveness and Cohesion: One Discourse, Multiple Realities and New Challenges for Policy and Research.
