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DThis paper presents an additive index on climate policy engagement at the municipal level, based on the three dimensions awareness, conception and implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation. The distortion of the index is based on the self-perception and personal assessment of municipal decision-makers, which were collected and evaluated as part of a primary survey (postal survey). The index shows how strongly a municipality is committed to climate policy. Thus, it represents an extension of previous indices that either only consider climate mitigation or adaptation or are only based exclusively on secondary statistics. The second part of the paper describes the application of the index in three counties or 51 municipalities in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The interpretation takes place in the context of structural characteristics of the municipalities concerned (number of inhabitants, share of votes of different parties, geographical location). The distribution of the index values shows a similar awareness in climate protection and climate change adaptation, but an increasing discrepancy in the implementation of adaptation-specific measures.

The paper discusses the connection of the foundational economy approach, a contemporary concept in the public services discourse, with the notion of spatial justice. It argues that the economic relevance of the systems of the foundational economy are important for territorial development issues, too and that they are able to provide a substantial contribution to sustainable and just spatial development. First, the concept of spatial justice is introduced as a spatial planning policy interpretation of equal living conditions. Based on four sub-dimensions, it is shown that access to basic services for all people plays an elementary part in this. The concept shares this perspective with the foundational economy approach. The latter opens up a new perspective on public services and, in addition to the service provision, also emphasises the high significance of foundational economic systems for labour markets. Against this background, a descriptive-statistical evaluation of labour market data on the spatial distribution of the foundational economy at the district level in Bavaria is carried out. Overall, the paper addresses the uneven spatial distribution of the foundational economies and advocates better funding for municipalities in order to achieve spatial justice.

Abstract Against the backdrop of shrinking populations, new strategies for maintaining services of general interest in European rural areas are required at both a European and a German level. With regard to this, the field of post-school education as a service of general interest is seen as playing an important role with considerable effects on regional development processes. Educational institutions, traditionally highly centralised, have been shown to influence decisions on staying in or leaving rural areas and thus can further intensify regional demographic developments. In this paper, we examine two examples of post-school educational opportunities in Scotland and Sweden that have been able to establish themselves in a rural setting affected by shrinking trends. Our interpretation is that the continued stability of these examples is due to the ability of local actors to utilise local resources in a meaningful way. The aim of this paper is therefore to contribute to a structured understanding of how local actors manage limited resources to provide services of general interest in the environment of rural, sparsely populated regions in the long term. To enable a systematised analysis of our data, we use an analytical framework originally developed to understand the resources generated by informal planning practices in rural areas.

This paper addresses the scope for action by municipalities in a climate emergency and places it in the framework of ecomodern (urban) policy. We analyse the way in which two German ‘climate emergency municipalities’ translate conflicts of post-fossil transformation into concrete political and planning strategies. Although more than 2,200 authorities around the world have already declared a climate emergency, research on the impact of these resolutions on the political orientation of municipalities is very limited. Our research focus is on the (potentially agonistic) treatment of conflicts in planning. We argue that in times of a socio-ecological crisis, success in conflict resolution cannot refer to appeasement and depoliticisation. Instead, we propose a framework of five criteria, based on critical theory on ecomodern strategies, planning processes and degrowth. Thus, this practice-related and explorative paper connects empirical insights from the German cities of Constance and Berlin with an innovative normative framework. The findings tell a complex story of an, at least partial, admission of the failure of previous climate mitigation strategies, a lack of social institutions of limits, an instrumental relation to nature and a disregard for social injustices. The paper discusses how municipalities, in the context of ongoing tensions over the post-fossil transformation in Germany, on the one hand hold on to business-as-usual approaches, but on the other hand also set political impulses for change.

Since 2011, the European Commission has recommended that member states reduce land take and achieve the ‘no net land take’ objective by 2050. The objective was reinforced in the EU ‘Soil Strategy for 2030’ and is likely to gain further importance in the upcoming Soil Health Law. This paper investigates the feasibility and implementation of a no net land take policy for the Flemish region, Belgium. The new land policy for Flanders was announced in 2016, representing a paradigm shift from spatial growth to final growth boundaries. The paper uses a generic model of the policy-making cycle to assess the implementation of a no net land take policy at the national or regional level. We propose a roadmap of implementation in five cyclical phases for Flanders, but many aspects of this proposed roadmap can be applied to other parts of Europe as well. In the implementation stage, the targeted selection and implementation of land-use instruments is of paramount importance to realise the land-take reduction trajectory. The Flemish case of the so-called Bouwshift shows that development instruments supporting further construction at good locations are politically more popular than protective measures that actually protect soil and landscape but intervene in property rights.

The question of whether 21st-century urbanization dynamics are leading to a suburbanization of poverty in Western city regions has been on the agenda of spatial researchers and housing policymakers for over a decade now. Persistent reurbanization trends are putting increased pressure on inner-city housing markets, resulting in affordability problems for low-income households. Evidence from the US and the UK shows that financing mechanisms in the real estate sector were severely disrupted in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2009 and subsequent years, with many households losing their homes and being forced to move. Though social security systems and social housing policies generally have a moderating effect, they vary widely across Western countries. Against this background, this paper presents three spatial observation methods tailored to the spatial analysis of poverty concentrations in Germany. The methods are based on three popular conceptualizations of poverty: material poverty, relative poverty, and the concept of neighbourhood deprivation. The main novelty presented in this paper is a cold-spot analysis of purchasing power in 33 city regions using interactive map visualizations and complemented by socioeconomic indicators. Expert feedback verifies the validity of the approach which addresses a ‘blind spot’ in assessing poverty in Germany, where many low-income households are increasingly exposed to risks of poverty despite not qualifying for social benefits.

The current debate on agonism has become fixed in an institutional approach: How can an agonistic design institutionally become a tool against forms of domination? An agonistic space needs decisions that do not silence dissensual voices with a finite decision. This paper suggests that this agonistic approach needs de-cisions or simply put, temporary decisions drawn from seeing a decision as a solution for now. A de-cision is not a no-decision, but a decision recognised as temporary. The paper proposes ‘the sketch’ as an appropriate mode for working de-cisionally and unfinished. By having a sketch and working de-cisionally, planners are able to invite agonistic positions to ongoing talks and to act progressively, adaptably, or rationally in the face of emerging circumstances and uncertainty. To work unfinished from a sketch transforms the planning process from being a matter of reaching a finite decision to a strife about how to understand the present and which temporary contours and directions to move on from. The paper as such thus deals with difficult praxis questions, for instance: How is it possible to allow dissent to inform planning praxis in praxis? How can quarrelling and working unfinished empower planning democracy?

This paper deals with planning conflicts in the pluralistic democracy, based on an international literature review. The aim is to trace the state of research on how spatial planning deals with conflicts. Moreover, we reflect upon the development of major planning paradigms with regard to this topic. To this end, some basics on conflict and conflict resolution in spatial planning are presented. The collaborative planning paradigm, which appears hegemonic in planning theory and practice until today, is then critically discussed with regard to its handling of conflicts. Subsequently, agonistic planning theory is introduced with reference to the work of political scientist Chantal Mouffe. This concept claims to deal specifically with conflict, which renders it particularly relevant for this topic. In conclusion, the paper reflects on the extent to which agonistic planning can have practical relevance for the regulation of conflicts and how this can be achieved in contemporary planning practice.

The paper critically reviews communicative and agonistic planning theories from the viewpoint of a systemic turn in deliberative democracy theory. While the approach reveals complementarities between the theories, it also argues that each theory is vulnerable to criticism because of an ‘institutional gap’. The theories are found to complement each other in addressing planning conflicts at different dimensions. Communicative planning theory deals with conflicts between different stakeholders’ interests in planning processes. Agonistic planning theory, in turn, concentrates on conflicts from a more ontological dimension, related to the (implicit) conflict between hegemonic and marginalized discourses and related identity-forming processes of inclusion and exclusion in planning policies and governance. The institutional gap of communicative planning theory is argued to reside in its focus on situational deliberation that largely ignores the institutional dimension of rules and norms of democratic conduct. Agonistic pluralism, in turn, does engage with the dimension of democratic institutions, but in an overly critical manner, making it difficult for agonistic planning theory to address the dynamic interplay between institutional reconfiguration and policy stabilization in planning. This is argued to be the institutional gap of agonistic planning theory. The paper calls for further work in the field of planning theory to incorporate a systemic approach to deliberative democracy and thereby tap into the dialectics of institutional and situational dimensions of planning.

The energy transition and the expansion of renewable energies are central challenges to planning. In view of tightened climate protection targets and the associated rise in installation capacity, planning conflicts are likely to intensify further in the coming years. At the same time, democratic institutions are under increasing pressure. The expansion of wind energy must proceed swiftly while democratic participation must be ensured. Based on planning conflicts over wind turbines in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and Brandenburg, this paper addresses the extent to which research on planning conflicts can benefit from a justice perspective, both in theoretical-conceptual and empirical terms. Drawing on concepts from research on spatial justice, energy justice, and planning justice, the paper uses a three-dimensional conception of justice to identify access points for dealing constructively with conflicts. First, conflicts have to be recognized as such and their productive potential has to be acknowledged. Second, strategies have to be established that allow conflicts to be dealt with constructively. In doing so, several dimensions of justice must be taken into account: distributive justice and the question of what is to be distributed according to which criteria, recognition justice and the reflexion on difference and needs beyond hegemonic majority opinion, and finally procedural justice, which is intended to ensure that recognition and fair distribution can be implemented. In this way, a proactive attitude towards planning conflicts can make a central contribution to sustainable and democratic planning.

Conflicts are considered as vital elements of plural democracies in agonistic political and planning theory. According to this theory, antagonisms are to be tamed and channeled into agonistic disputes. Therefore, forms of participation in planning procedures play a key role in the resolution and regulation of conflicts. The central question of this paper is the role of participatory procedures in planning in order to resolve and settle conflicts, which occur in a particularly sharp way in the context of large-scale projects. The paper presents planning conflicts and forms of participation using the case of the settlement of the Gigafactory Tesla in the German state of Brandenburg. Within the framework of an empirical case study, the approval procedure of the project and a land use plan procedure of the municipality are analysed. Both procedures are characterized by a great acceleration, early preliminary decisions and participation deficits. The result shows that in the case of the settlement of Tesla, in addition to conflicts of interest, values and location, procedural conflicts also occur, which call the acceptance of planning into question. The forms of participation practiced do not prove suitable for taming conflicts, but rather produce mistrust among opponents and reinforce antagonistic dynamics.

Public space is an essential element of cities as it offers several benefits. Due to its significance, there is much discussion of its design, development and use. Although equally important, the management of public space lacks attention in academia and policy. This is regrettable given concerns about the quality of public space and calls for substantial changes in public space management. Moreover, while multi-actor involvement in public space management has become popular, its impact has been less studied. This paper attempts to fill the research gap by presenting an empirical study on Görlitzer Park in Berlin, Germany. Thereby, it focuses on multi-actor involvement in public space management. Based on the results of social network analysis, the paper provides a valuable insight into the actors involved, the actor network and their impact on public space management. Most importantly, the paper argues that the structure of the actor network matters for managing public space. This suggests that improving the actor network can be a key to enhancing the quality of public space. The paper also discusses how to improve communication between actors to better manage public space.

This paper is based on intensive study of the contents of the journal “Raumforschung und Raumordnung” (RuR) – from its first publication in 1936 to its (temporary) discontinuation in 1944. It was the forum for the new scientific and political thoughts and reflections that were formed in this field during the Nazi era and was supported by the institutions in charge of its publication: the “Reich Association for Spatial Research” (RAG) and the “Reich Agency for Spatial Planning” (RfR). The aim of the paper is to uncover which social developments and accompanying intellectual groundwork from the time before 1933 the authors were able to build upon, both positively and negatively, and which expositions paid tribute to the (malevolent) spirit of the times and the goals of the Nazi regime. The contradiction between professional competence and intellectual subservience to the Nazi regime, or even the perversion of professionality, is revealed in the career behaviour of academics and practitioners, almost all of whom were born around 1900. Their activities after 1945 and their future careers are mentioned but are not the subject of this paper.

Many metropolitan regions face concerns over sprawling development, increased costs of maintaining infrastructure, and loss of green space and farmland. Some metropolitan regions have intentionally created spatial policies to govern development patterns and manage growth within their region. This paper compares the spatial policies applied in three case studies: the Puget Sound region (Washington State, USA), Metro Vancouver region (British Columbia, Canada) and Stuttgart region (Baden-Württemberg, Germany). While all three regions share a vision that can broadly be summarised as transit-connected communities, each metropolitan planning organisation leverages a variety of spatial policies. Based on the unique planning cultures, various governmental actors take on different roles at the local, county, regional and state levels. This paper categorises and compares the multi-level responsibilities for defining, mapping, and implementing spatial policies. With this focus, the paper provides an international comparative perspective on approaches, context, and contents of multi-level growth management.

This paper deals with the management of settlement growth in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg from the perspective of informality. Luxembourg is subject to high demographic and economic growth pressures across all parts of the country (capital, old-industrialized South, rural North), which strongly challenges the current planning system. At the same time, there is no formal regional planning, apart from approaches of inter-municipal cooperation, which are mainly voluntary in nature. Drawing on empirical case studies in two high-growth municipalities (Junglinster, Schuttrange), the paper outlines planning decisions in the institutional triangle between municipality, state and private institutions. Informality serves here not only to compensate for a lack of planning control, but also to deal with the country’s complex legal framework conditions. The vital interests of landowners come into play informally as well: since parts of the country’s wealth emerge from the valorization of property, speculative interests are immanent, and thus block development processes. In this context, the paper addresses elements of a regional growth management that could close the gap that exists between state planning and municipal autonomy.

The concept of differentiated land use was formulated already 50 years ago to preserve biodiversity and to maintain or restore the necessary landscape structure. Although it has been anchored in the Federal Nature Conservation Act, there is still no monitoring of its implementation, although the German Advisory Council on the Environment has been calling for this for 25 years. The paper argues that the technical prerequisites for monitoring the differentiated land use are ready today and discusses the conceptual steps necessary. It identifies several dimensions and proposes corresponding indicators of landscape structure, in particular the degree of diversification and the mixing of intensive land uses, the distribution of the size of intensively used areas, the proportion of semi-natural areas (at least 10 %) and the interconnected arrangement of semi-natural areas. Furthermore, the paper discusses suitable reference units and existing data. Finally, we identify remaining gaps in the data basis and discuss the question of defining target values.

This paper puts forward a proposal for the consideration of atmospheres within the analysis of the social construction of landscape(s). Starting out from an overview of approaches in constructivist landscape research, focusing on the German speaking world, we may confirm an increased interest in the role of subjective multisensorial experience with regard to constructions of landscape(s), which has, however, not yet been reflected in current research approaches. The concept of atmosphere, with its consideration of multisensorial in situ-encounters, may be able to contribute to the scholarly discussion. Following a presentation of core ideas of the concept of atmosphere(s), we show that, on a conceptual level, the conscious experience of atmospheres and their effects may inform the construction of landscapes. Furthermore, in a methodological section we illustrate on the basis of two exploratory examples, how the influence of atmospheres on subjective constructions of landscape(s) may be empirically accessible. The paper closes with a discussion of our proposal within current trajectories of the Anglophone landscape geography.

The development of residential areas in the context of settlement development is a significant driver regarding land use and thus critical in achieving the goal of reduced new land use to less than 30 hectares per day by 2030. Although spatial planning and spatial science have been addressing this issue for years, e.g. through consistent land management, the current land use in Germany amounts to around 52 hectares per day (as of 2019). This is i.a. because the control of settlement development often only intervenes in developments that go beyond the own communal development. Approaches to controlling self-development usually remain on a blanket level and thus promote decentralized decisions that, in total, contradict the set goals. The aim of this paper is to present a model for calculating self-development, which not only takes demographic development into account, but also aligns the size of self-development with site-specific requirements to consider the principles of spatial planning and thus promote sustainable spatial development. In its empirical basis, the paper is based on statistical analyses of the respective needs as well as surveys, interviews research results that have been carried out or have arisen within the framework of the BMBFfunded project Interko2.

Metropolitan regions result from spatial rescaling processes and region formations and are considered as “soft spaces of governance”, referring to international debates on the “new regionalism”. This paper addresses the criticism that the focus on competitive metropolitan regions distracts from the need for action on classic spatial planning issues. For this, the paper examines and discusses the institutional integration of regional planning in the German metropolitan regions and the activities of regional growth management as well as the regulatory intensity of regional plans based on a group comparison of metropolitan regions. As a result, the thesis of an institutionally fragmented regulatory growth management by regional planning can only be confirmed for a few metropolitan regions, where no relevant institutions and instruments are implemented in the core area. Regarding the “soft” instruments of growth management, the situation is very different. Here, the action potential is not yet fully utilized, even in metropolitan regions with strong institutional cores

In this paper, growth coalitions and growth critiques are examined by using the example of in-migration policies in the context of Jena case study. This is based on the following questions: Which local growth coalitions do exist with which growth goals? To what extent do growth boundaries lead to an expansion of local growth coalitions with the urban hinterland? What kind of growth-critical positions are there in urban politics and to what extent do they question growth policies? The paper particularly ties in with the theoretical discussion of post-growth planning and enriches it by an empirical reflection by examining forms of municipal growth scepticism as well as limits of regional cooperation. The results show that there is a distinct growth coalition in Jena, which pursues the goal of attracting skilled workers to secure economic growth. However, due to natural growth limits and the resistance of individual residents, in-migration policies are reaching their limits, so that intermunicipal cooperation in the urban region is being sought as a fallback solution. Explicit critiques of growth and a fundamental public discussion about growth policies, on the other hand, just begin to emerge.

With the shift of the workplace to the private home in the Covid-19-pandemic, the sphere of gainful employment has more or less abruptly invaded the private sphere and has not only led to necessary adaptations in houses and flats, but has also raised new questions about the attractiveness of residential locations. Based on the results of an online survey, this paper examines the influence of home office on housing and settlement structures. Considerations of co-working spaces, another form of mobile work, are also included in the analyses. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the discussion about the attractiveness of residential locations and the consequences of mobile working for housing behaviour. The results show: Contrary to what media discussions suggest, no clear effects on location preferences or a ‘new desire for the countryside’ can be identified (so far). Furthermore, there is an increased willingness to move, especially in flats that are perceived as too small; dissatisfaction with the flat is higher among respondents with little space. Co-working Spaces do not yet play a role, but respondents with a preference for flexible forms of work are considering them.

This paper presents a scientifically credible and practically relevant set of indicators and methods to assess and evaluate ecosystem services of relevance for land use and landscape planning. The research questions are (i) to identify suitable ecosystem services, indicators, and methods, and (ii) to assess the proposed indicators regarding the respective data availability and assessment effort. The region of Frankfurt/Rhein-Main (Germany) serves as the case study. The methods include the synthesis of a specifically adapted list of ecosystem services indicators based on relevant prior research and an expert-based and application-oriented evaluation. The proposed list for the region of Frankfurt/Rhein-Main contains 27 ecosystemservices, with one or more associated indicators each. The evaluation reveals that metropolitan regions in Germany usually provide sufficient data to assess almost all ecosystem services. The assessment effort differs, but is generally moderate. The paper concludes with recommendations for practical application in the Frankfurt region and beyond.

This paper presents a scientifically credible and practically relevant set of indicators and methods to assess and evaluate ecosystem services of relevance for land use and landscape planning. The research questions are (i) to identify suitable ecosystem services, indicators, and methods, and (ii) to assess the proposed indicators regarding the respective data availability and assessment effort. The region of Frankfurt/Rhein-Main (Germany) serves as the case study. The methods include the synthesis of a specifically adapted list of ecosystem services indicators based on relevant prior research and an expert-based and application-oriented evaluation. The proposed list for the region of Frankfurt/Rhein-Main contains 27 ecosystemservices, with one or more associated indicators each. The evaluation reveals that metropolitan regions in Germany usually provide sufficient data to assess almost all ecosystem services. The assessment effort differs, but is generally moderate. The paper concludes with recommendations for practical application in the Frankfurt region and beyond.

Ensuring a crisis-proof food supply has become a key political issue. In Germany, official spatial planning allows the use of priority and reserved areas to secure land for agricultural use and regional food supply. The focus should be particularly on climate-resilient areas that also have a stable yield potential in the future. This paper supplements widely used, static approaches for determining priority and reserved areas with a dynamic bio-economic analysis that takes future climate scenarios into account. The results for the German federal state of Brandenburg show a high area equivalence between the static and dynamic approaches. In the case of data gaps, for example, static approaches such as soil quality indices can serve as an adequate proxy for future yield potentials. However, not all climate-robust areas can be classified as potential reserved or priority areas. Furthermore, areas that show low yield potential under future conditions are not released for other land uses. Feedback from stakeholders involved in the study showed that the use of the dynamic approach and a target value using the results of a foodshed model lead to broad acceptance. The method developed here can make a valuable contribution to climate change adaptation in spatial planning instruments.

This paper demonstrates an approach to the problem of micro-scale analysis of medical service provision in Germany. Research focuses include estimating population dynamics, mapping access to medical facilities and identifying spatial patterns in medical service provision. We applied the Enhanced Two Step Floating Catchment Area method to quantify changes in access to primary care physicians over a period of eleven years. Our study reveals that overall access is modestly rising, but significant spatial disparities exist between different regions of Germany. We describe both supply and demand issues behind the observed changes in access. As a key result, we identify four types of regions with differing access-population dynamics. Our main conclusion on the topic of medical service provision is that spatial planning is facing a multi-dimensional problem rather than a one-dimensional one, and that access to services depends on a combination of factors. Concerning differences between rural and urban regions, we find that that there is no general positive or negative trend for either.

Balancing in general and balancing alternatives and variants can be seen as a core component of the work of planners. Against the backdrop of current social challenges, the complexity of these balancing processes is increasing. From a planning science perspective, however, the question of the balancing process has only begun to be analysed. To date, there are only a few empirical studies that have explicitly focussed on balancing processes in Germany. This is where this paper starts by focusing on urban planning, investigating what planners understand by balancing alternatives and variants and how the balancing process is presented in everyday planning. To this end, 19 qualitative interviews were conducted with public and private sector planners. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The results confirm the central role of balancing processes in everyday planning and emphasise the need for further research to understand these processes’ complexity and significance.

Universities are important economic actors and make a considerable impact on the demand and supply side of their local economies. The aim of this paper is to quantify, compare and classify the different economic demand-and supply-side contributions of the university locations within Lower Saxony (Germany) using a combination of multiplier analysis and spatial econometrics on a NUTS 3 level. In comparison to numerous other studies, this paper does not focus on the economic impact of individual cases or a selected university location but gives a complete picture of the importance and significance of all university locations within Lower Saxony. The income-induced direct and indirect demand effects are estimated using a rich data set of higher education statistics in combination with an income and employment multiplier derived from a regional input-output table. The supply-side effects, i.e. the impact of the education and research outcomes, are estimated with the help of spatial panel regressions, a model derived from human capital theory and knowledge spillover theory. The estimation results give a complete and reproducible impression of the importance and significance of the different university locations, offering the opportunity for comparisons and classifications.

This paper examines shifts in the design of, use of and rhetoric accompanying maps published in the periodical Raumforschung und Raumordnung from 1936 through 1955. In the discussion of these maps published prior to and during the Second World War, special attention is paid to the depiction of the German Empire, the incorporation of Austria into maps of the Third Reich, and cartographic portrayals of Poland and other eastern European territory. Particularly in-depth investigation into articles and maps written and drawn by Reinhold Niemeyer and Rudolf Hoffmann is also undertaken here. In evaluating the maps published in Raumforschung und Raumordnung (RuR) after Germany’s defeat, this paper focuses on depictions of the new Federal Republic of Germany and the mapping of its relationship, geographically, to the German Democratic Republic. While the content of the maps published in RuR reflected the territorial reality of its German cartographers and authors – from violent expansionism to defeat, territorial diminution and a split into two distinct nation states –, this paper argues that many of the cartographic strategies employed in its pages remained relatively consistent over time.

With work-related living in several places – also known as multi-local living – on the rise due to flexible working and living environments, employers are increasingly challenged to support multi-local living arrangements in order to recruit and retain qualified employees nationwide. This paper presents the first results of an analysis conducted in the cities of Stuttgart in Germany and Milan in Italy. With the help of semi-structured problem-oriented interviews with multi-local employees in knowledge-based sectors, their requirements and the benefits they currently receive from their employers in support of their living arrangements are examined. The results show, among other things, that in both cities certain types of companies are more open to these living arrangements. However, few employers were found to have official policies for dealing with multi-locality. Furthermore, it is shown that different types of multi-local employees require different support. The paper also discusses interactions between workrelated multi-locality and spatial development.

With work-related living in several places – also known as multi-local living – on the rise due to flexible working and living environments, employers are increasingly challenged to support multi-local living arrangements in order to recruit and retain qualified employees nationwide. This paper presents the first results of an analysis conducted in the cities of Stuttgart in Germany and Milan in Italy. With the help of semi-structured problem-oriented interviews with multi-local employees in knowledge-based sectors, their requirements and the benefits they currently receive from their employers in support of their living arrangements are examined. The results show, among other things, that in both cities certain types of companies are more open to these living arrangements. However, few employers were found to have official policies for dealing with multi-locality. Furthermore, it is shown that different types of multi-local employees require different support. The paper also discusses interactions between workrelated multi-locality and spatial development.

Marseille is broadly considered a postindustrial city in crisis, which has failed to achieve a functional reconversion and a change of narrative in the age of globalization. Over the last two decades, however, processes of regionalized and integrated metropolisation have had an impact on the city’s urban renaissance prospects. This paper identifies three central projects, which symbolically represent and concretely articulate different axes of Marseille’s metropolisation processes: Euroméditerranée (1995-*); The European Capital of Culture Marseille-Provence 2013; and the institutional creation of the Métropole d'Aix-Marseille-Provence. This paper proposes to approach metropolisation as a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Drawing on the three aforementioned cases, we analyze the different territorial-spatial scales affected, as well as the various geographic scales of governance stakeholders involved. Reflecting on their scopes of impact respectively, the aim of the study is to investigate the challenges and opportunities of multi-scalar metropolisation for Aix-Marseille-Provence, and to discuss to what extent this conflictual plurality might (not) be promising for a consensual metropolitan integration in the future.

This paper explores different functions of co-presence for collaborative knowledge creation in the context of seed accelerator programs. Seed accelerators offer programs of three to six months to enhance the growth of early-stage start-ups through various means of training and organizational development. In this paper, seed accelerator programs are analysed as orchestrated sequences of different types of physical co-presence. By drawing on qualitative case study data, the paper identifies eight different ways in which physical co-presence is used during seed accelerator programs. Through these eight types of co-presence, the analysis reveals that physical co-presence unfolds unique social dynamics that are utilized in a carefully designed combination of presence and absence. It is shown that physical co-presence is a means to enact relational distance and to bridge this distance for the benefit of the entrepreneurial process. Therefore, this paper adds a new perspective on how co-presence is used to facilitate the generation of value through collaborative knowledge creation.

The objective of this paper is to understand how work processes and the quality of physical places support creative knowledge generation. The creation of knowledge is linked to both social space and physical place, and is influenced by steady socio-spatial dynamics. In workplaces, the space-time dynamics of knowledge creation coincide with the physical characteristics of place. On the basis of qualitative interviews with Design thinking workshop facilitators, as well as participants, the influence of three types of creative support (psychosocial, inspirational and functional) is linked to the elements of place, people and process in this specific innovation method. This paper discusses in which ways place, people and process contribute to creating a creativity-enhancing workspace and inspiring atmosphere in temporary spatial proximity. Eventisation of the innovation process, and interaction in temporary spatial proximity, are important prerequisites for keeping knowledge creation exciting.

The principles of sustainability are currently applied in Germany and many other countries as important guidelines for urban development. However, different forms of understanding regarding sustainable development and different approaches concerning its implementation can be found in various spatial contexts. This paper focuses on Freiburg, Heidelberg and Tübingen, three cities in southwestern Germany. These cities produce different images due to ambitious urban development plans which are based on the three pillars of ecological, economic and social sustainability in different ways. Numerous similarities between these three cities notwithstanding, they highlight different aspects of sustainable urban development and emphasise them via particularly widespread awareness of ‘showcase projects’. For Freiburg, this includes Vauban and Rieselfeld, for Heidelberg Bahnstadt, and for Tübingen Französisches Viertel and Loretto. The central questions in this paper are therefore: How do images and the implementation of sustainability differ with regard to the three pillars of sustainability? How can differences and similarities with regard to the three pillars of sustainability be explained and what consequences can be drawn for future studies in sustainable urban development? Following a classification of research perspectives on sustainable urban development, distinguishing between more practically oriented aspects, on the one hand, and theory-based critical considerations, on the other, this article examines showcase projects from the three selected cities on the basis of planning documents, websites, local newspapers and academic literature. Moreover, further projects are taken into consideration. The paper concludes with general observations and discussions concerning the image and implementation of sustainable urban development.

For planners, processes of complex spatial transformations today are comparable to uncharted land and an uncertain voyage. Many possible role images overlap and contrast to traditional and established ways of thinking and acting. The focus here is on navigating instead of controlling, about supporting instead of enforcing. Planning lacks tools to think and act when facing uncertainty. This paper proposes role-reflexive planning as an educational and experimental approach to thinking through different potentialities. It offers groundwork from the boundary between planning and transition studies, using role-based ideas as a bridge. It offers an overview about different roles that are relevant to working towards transformations as spatial planners. It develops an account of role-reflexive planning that connects between contexts, actions and back to individual modes of behaviour in planning processes. As a basis, this paper condenses experiences of a role-playing pilot workshop and discussions about potential elements of a transition towards 'post-growth planning'. It outlines how role-playing challenges the individual roles of actors beyond the game situations themselves. Conceptual ideas foster a renewed role-based debate on thinking and acting in the face of uncertainty and ways to navigate through the stormy waters of transformation.

Coastal and marine areas represent an increasingly important and relevant action space for spatial planning. However, to a large extent marine (or maritime) spatial planning has emerged separately from terrestrial spatial planning, constituting its own epistemic community. In particular, previous studies indicate that Marine Spatial Planning often follows an expert-driven resource management rationale focused on sea-use regulation. This paper examines practices of Marine Spatial Planning and Integrated Coastal Zone Management at the German North Sea coast. The paper focuses in particular on the engagement of spatial planners with these practices and their perception of their role therein. We seek to understand what form spatial planning at the coast and at sea currently takes and how this might develop in the future in response to current and anticipated policy developments. We argue for the necessity of a communicative, cross-sectoral approach to spatial planning at sea, providing a spatial vision for the future that extends from the Exclusive Economic Zone to encompass both the coastal waters of the federal states and the land-sea interface in a substantive manner.

This paper examines the governance options for reurbanisation in medium-sized cities by using the example of Bamberg. The key questions are: Which planning approaches are developed in the areas of action housing and urban development to shape reurbanisation? How do local actor constellations and relationships shape the governance options? The contribution follows on debates about local reurbanisation drivers and an understanding of planning in terms of governance. The results show that Bamberg aimed to develop a conversion area and has thus implemented planning instruments and political-administrative structures. However, the use of the conversion areas by non-municipal actors in addition with municipal actors that are strongly guided by monetary considerations prevents the conversion in the further course and severely limits the governance options. As a result, a departure from the goal of a planned reurbanisation can be seen. The paper concludes by discussing the context under which growth policies for reurbanisation are developed and implemented.

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.

Universities are important economic actors and make a considerable impact on the demand and supply side of their local economies. The aim of this paper is to quantify, compare and classify the different economic demand-and supply-side contributions of the university locations within Lower Saxony (Germany) using a combination of multiplier analysis and spatial econometrics on a NUTS 3 level. In comparison to numerous other studies, this paper does not focus on the economic impact of individual cases or a selected university location but gives a complete picture of the importance and significance of all university locations within Lower Saxony. The income-induced direct and indirect demand effects are estimated using a rich data set of higher education statistics in combination with an income and employment multiplier derived from a regional input-output table. The supply-side effects, i.e. the impact of the education and research outcomes, are estimated with the help of spatial panel regressions, a model derived from human capital theory and knowledge spillover theory. The estimation results give a complete and reproducible impression of the importance and significance of the different university locations, offering the opportunity for comparisons and classifications.

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.

The paper explores the issue of new urban development areas from two specific perspectives: on the one hand, rather than concentrating on housing, we address the question of science and research, in particular university locations and science parks, as a central guiding principle for urban expansion. On the other hand, the paper focuses on the analysis of urban management and governance practices and, more specifically, the disjoining of large projects from their common urban planning context. Emphasis is put on the fact that such undertakings are defined as ‘projects’ and that they are subordinated to a specific management approach. Amid debates concerning large-scale urban development projects and urban governance, we develop the thesis that the risk for projects to unfold as a sort of ‘foreign matter’ in the urban realm increases as the degree to which they are subject to proven planning processes and regulatory practices diminishes. This argument will be empirically illustrated with Belval, the science city in the south of Luxembourg, which is developed ever since 2003 and whose progress is critically assessed here. The general conclusions include planning requirements for dealing with new large-scale development projects.

Short-term rentals in general and Airbnb in particular are currently in the public focus. Using the example of the city of Salzburg with a mixed-method approach, this paper examines both the spatial characteristics and the stake-holder structure associated with this form of platform urbanism. Specifically, the paper provides insights into the spatial distribution, supply and revenue structure, motives of hosts and effects of Airbnb on the housing market. It becomes evident that Airbnb’s idea of shared housing in the sense of the so-called home sharing plays a subordinate role. A new market has developed between the hotel business and regular apartment rentals, which is determined primarily by commercial providers serving the Airbnb market in Salzburg. We argue that Airbnb creates a new form of rent gap, which is no longer preceded by a prior devaluation of districts. This earnings gap now also arises in urban areas that can be described as stable in terms of both price and socio-demographics, since profit increases can be achieved within a very short period of time and with little financial effort. The effects on the housing market are significant, especially in the heavily touristic frequented inner city areas of Salzburg, which cause or intensify processes of change.

This paper explores different functions of co-presence for collaborative knowledge creation in the context of seed accelerator programs. Seed accelerators offer programs of three to six months to enhance the growth of early-stage start-ups through various means of training and organizational development. In this paper, seed accelerator programs are analysed as orchestrated sequences of different types of physical co-presence. By drawing on qualitative case study data, the paper identifies eight different ways in which physical co-presence is used during seed accelerator programs. Through these eight types of co-presence, the analysis reveals that physical co-presence unfolds unique social dynamics that are utilized in a carefully designed combination of presence and absence. It is shown that physical co-presence is a means to enact relational distance and to bridge this distance for the benefit of the entrepreneurial process. Therefore, this paper adds a new perspective on how co-presence is used to facilitate the generation of value through collaborative knowledge creation.

The objective of this paper is to understand how work processes and the quality of physical places support creative knowledge generation. The creation of knowledge is linked to both social space and physical place, and is influenced by steady socio-spatial dynamics. In workplaces, the space-time dynamics of knowledge creation coincide with the physical characteristics of place. On the basis of qualitative interviews with Design thinking workshop facilitators, as well as participants, the influence of three types of creative support (psychosocial, inspirational and functional) is linked to the elements of place, people and process in this specific innovation method. This paper discusses in which ways place, people and process contribute to creating a creativity-enhancing workspace and inspiring atmosphere in temporary spatial proximity. Eventisation of the innovation process, and interaction in temporary spatial proximity, are important prerequisites for keeping knowledge creation exciting.

Social differentiation has developed to be one of the crucial characteristics of urban development in Eastern Germany's large cities, an issue that is increasingly reflected in daily life perceptions and policy-making. This development can be especially observed in those cities that, after a phase of shrinkage in the 1990s, have seen new growth during the last years. The focus is here on social differentiation that we understand as an increase in social inequalities, and on social heterogeneity that is understood as pluralization of cultural and religious identities, lifestyles and living environments. Set against this background, the paper discusses social differentiation and increasing heterogeneity in Leipzig with a focus on daily life perceptions by the residents and local policy development. It analyses how social difference and increasing heterogeneity have become an issue for daily routines and practices as well as for policy formulation and how both perspectives interact. The paper is based on a multi-dimensional understanding of heterogeneity including the socio-economic, demographic, lifestyle and ethnic-migration dimension. Spatially, both the total city and neighbourhood perspective are in focus. The paper concludes, among others, that social heterogeneity in its horizontal dimension is being recognised and accepted and that this is reflected by policy development as well. This does not apply in the same manner for increasing social inequalities. The example of Leipzig shows, furthermore, that there is a need for more differentiation in the local discourse with respect to the explicit recognition of horizontal difference, the need to counteract vertical social inequalities and the fact that out of the interaction/intersection of both dimensions, a bundle of new equivocalities and complexities emerge.

The principles of sustainability are currently applied in Germany and many other countries as important guidelines for urban development. However, different forms of understanding regarding sustainable development and different approaches concerning its implementation can be found in various spatial contexts. This paper focuses on Freiburg, Heidelberg and Tübingen, three cities in southwestern Germany. These cities produce different images due to ambitious urban development plans which are based on the three pillars of ecological, economic and social sustainability in different ways. Numerous similarities between these three cities notwithstanding, they highlight different aspects of sustainable urban development and emphasise them via particularly widespread awareness of ‘showcase projects’. For Freiburg, this includes Vauban and Rieselfeld, for Heidelberg Bahnstadt, and for Tübingen Französisches Viertel and Loretto. The central questions in this paper are therefore: How do images and the implementation of sustainability differ with regard to the three pillars of sustainability? How can differences and similarities with regard to the three pillars of sustainability be explained and what consequences can be drawn for future studies in sustainable urban development? Following a classification of research perspectives on sustainable urban development, distinguishing between more practically oriented aspects, on the one hand, and theory-based critical considerations, on the other, this article examines showcase projects from the three selected cities on the basis of planning documents, websites, local newspapers and academic literature. Moreover, further projects are taken into consideration. The paper concludes with general observations and discussions concerning the image and implementation of sustainable urban development.

Over the past two decades, e‑participation has become increasingly relevant as a result of digitization and the evolution of information and communication technologies. Yet the perspectives of providers and users with regard to the requirements on an e‑participation system are not sufficiently considered jointly. This paper investigates the requirements and challenges of users and providers. The study is based on a mixed methods approach with an online survey of those responsible for e‑participation processes in various administrative and planning areas as well as semi-structured expert interviews. In addition, we conducted proband tests to investigate the usability of digital citizen participation tools. The results show that accessibility, retrievability, effectiveness, interaction in the digital arena, security, technical specifications, resources, media literacy and the use of participation as a basis for profound decision-making are key requirements for e‑participation systems. These demands requirements are interrelated and influence the quality and effectiveness of participation processes. To meet these requirements, we propose an e‑participation ecosystem that integrates the different dimensions of digital participation and takes into account the interaction between actors, demands and contextual conditions.

Municipalities as key players in the transport transition, local authorities are increasingly using consultative public participation in planning. So far, however, it is unclear to what extent they use participatory processes in mobility-related planning and how these are organised. This paper closes this knowledge gap based on an analysis of the consultative, discursive participation processes for mobility-related planning in German cities since 2015. 180 cities and 350 procedures were analysed to determine to what extent an what characteristics in German municipalities use consultative, discursive participation procedures in mobility-related planning and what possible influence of the respective context can be derived from this. The study analyses ‘participation-oriented’ cities with guidelines for citizen participation, which were compared to a random selection of ‘typical’ municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony as well as the three German city states. It is clear that discursive consultations are carried out regularly, in particular in municipalities with guidelines and larger cities. Yet in most cities such processes are still the exception. Worth criticizing is that the formats used can usually reach only certain groups of the population and that for a significant proportion of the processes examined no information on the results of participation can be found. As a result, the potential of discursive citizen participation in addressing the municipal transport transition have not yet been sufficiently utilised.

Citizen participation has played an increasingly relevant role in spatial planning and development aiming to shape sustainable and innovative processes since the 1970s. Nevertheless, analogue participation is associated with various problems, such as social selectivity and a loss of civic trust in administration and politics. Against this background, high expectations lie in the development of digital participation formats, which have significantly changed the participation landscape. Despite the rapid development of digital participation based on new technologies and external factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic, there is still a lack of comprehensive empirical studies on spatial patterns and determinants. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to give an overview of the patterns, methods and determinants of digital and multi-channel participation in Germany. We comprehensively investigated digital and multi-channel participation processes on the websites of German cities and districts – about 4,000 approaches in total. The results show spatial disparities in digital participation processes. While the availability of broadband internet and public debt do not significantly influence the digital participation density in districts and cities, low election turnouts go along with high densities. This suggests that the administrations are responding to political disinterest with digital participation. The results also indicate that digital participation can be less socially selective, as high shares of population without German citizenship, high migration rates and low employment rates have significant positive effects on digital participation.

The paper discusses how it becomes common behaviour to exclude refugees in a middle-town. Therefore, an analytical model of hostile social spaces is formulated, which explains the exclusion of branded foreign groups. Precondition is a change in what is considered as a normal social behaviour. Through this, the newly developed collective norms of a local society justify the exclusion of specific groups such as refugees. Using Bautzen (Germany) as an example, the local discussion about refugees as well as their perception is debated. Therefore, the discourse about refugees and violence against them is analysed in newspaper articles as well as in minutes of political debates. In the center of the analysis are 106 semi-structured interviews with various social groups. So, the change of normality as well as the contextual effect, operationalized as the exclusion of refugees, are analysed. The results show a change of what is looked at as normal as well as that the exclusion of refugees is justified and not sanctioned in wide parts of the local society. Refugees report of exclusion and violence in different arenas like educational institutions, public spaces or the public transport network. The paper ends concluding additional need for research defining which sociostructural dynamics are preconditions for the developing of hostile places.