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Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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.

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.

This paper discusses the representativeness of the German Biosphere Reserves. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals will serve as the theoretical framework of this analysis. Germany currently accounts a share of 16 % of the terrestrial land area under strict nature protection. This means that there is no quantity problem. Rather, the question arises about the number, geographical distribution and quality of protected areas – in this example Biosphere Reserves. So far, scientific papers only focus on the natural landscape representativeness of Biosphere Reserves in Germany. This is not enough for this category of protected areas as it rests on the paradigm of sustainable development. This is why this paper is focusing on possible structural and socioeconomic shortcomings in the network of German Biosphere Reserves. Therefore, precise indicators will be analysed in form of thematical maps to address selected Sustainable Development Goals. Furthermore, the existing Biosphere Reserves will be analysed if and to what extent they are able to reach their intended exemplary function towards "the rest of the world" as models for sustainable development.

Densification and more efficient use of land are important planning challenges across Europe intended to aid the pursuit of sustainability goals. Property taxation influences land use. It can discourage or incentivize efficient land use. In the international academic debate, the land value tax is considered an effective land policy instrument that can promote more efficient use of land. Germany is currently transforming its property taxation system and has discussed different property tax models in the political decision-making process. This paper explores the political motivations of this reform based on a discourse analysis of plenary sessions and complementary in-depth expert interviews. On the one hand, the empirical findings highlight the experts’ positive assessment of the potential of the land value tax for efficient land use and densification. On the other hand, they also show how the potential allocative effects of the land value tax were largely overlooked during the political debates. Instead, discussion centred around distributional aspects of the property tax. It can be shown that despite the great potential for tackling urgent planning issues, policymakers are hesitant to adopt and apply instruments of land policy that intervene in existing private property rights.

People's perceptions of climate change are crucial for their readiness to engage in mitigation and adaptation. To identify the most influential factors in shaping perceptions of climate change, we conducted a comprehensive survey, carried out in Bavaria, Germany. Overall, 2,594 individuals across four societal actor groups were surveyed, namely 1,413 farmers, 197 foresters, 152 nature managers, and 832 citizens (no specific profession). We explored to what extent environmental factors (climate trends and land cover conditions in interviewees' place of residence -- based on geographical data) and socio-demographic factors (age, gender, education, societal actor group affiliation -- based on survey data) influence perceptions of climate change. Data analyses, including random forest algorithms, revealed socio-demographic factors, particularly societal actor group affiliations, as most influential variables. Local land cover conditions and climate trends only marginally affected residents' perceptions. Consequently, our results suggest to consider socio-demographic factors for tailoring climate communication, policies and awareness raising campaigns, particularly targeting societal groups most skeptical about climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, metropolitan policies emerge in a multi-scalar system of supranational, national and regional scales. Besides national policies on metropolitan issues, more and more European policies address metropolitan regions. They propose varying attributes of what characterizes a metropolitan region, for instance, defining them as functional and statistical areas, or as nodes for European spatial development. These conceptualizations of metropolitan regions have implications for institutional forms of metropolitan governance. However, existing research has not yet comparatively explored the development of metropolitan concepts in national and supranational policy contexts. This paper compares the changing concepts of metropolitan regions in the European Union, France and Germany. It raises the question of how different policies conceptualize metropolitan regions. Thereby, the paper proposes a comparative perspective on concepts in policies addressing metropolitan regions, such as policy documents, planning strategies, regulations or reports. It analyses shifts in metropolitan policies by describing the change of concepts and the reference to frames of spatial development such as polycentricity, competitiveness or integrated development. Three analytical perspectives contribute to understanding the change of metropolitan policies. First, the comparison of concepts in different national and supranational policy contexts develops an understanding of metropolitan regions beyond national specificities. Second, a historical comparison contributes to understanding changes in metropolitan concepts since the late 1990s. And third, analysing the development of metropolitan policies comparatively explores similarities of concepts and frames between policy contexts, despite differences in institutional settings.

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Energy co-operatives have played an important role in the development of decentralized renewable electricity production in Germany in the new millennium. They collect capital from individuals and thus open up another source of funding to promote the ”Energiewende“ in Germany. Their regional orientation and the co-operative participation model are regarded as success factors which help to increase local acceptance. With the amendment of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) in 2014, the so far very favorable funding conditions gradually fall away, which were central to the business models of many, especially regional energy co-operatives. The boom phase of energy co-operatives has thus come to an end and the increasing market orientation of support policies requires adaptations and innovations. Against this background the paper explores energy cooperatives and their development from an innovation perspective. It specifically asks how they need to position, if they are to make a significant contribution to a decentralized energy transition in the future. In the empirical part of this paper, we examine the structures and developments in the German energy co-operative sector based on existing data and an online survey, with a focus on energy cooperatives of different sizes and geographical orientation, complemented by an analysis of two case studies. We conclude that economies of scale and geographical diversification can offer benefits, but that there are also promising development opportunities for regional energy co-operatives. Diversification of business fields, which can include not only energy-related services, but also other local general interest services, as well as cooperation at the regional level and with other energy co-operatives and their umbrella associations, could be starting points for successful regional strategies. In general, direct marketing can become a potentially important element of innovative development of business models, because – in accordance with the co-operative core principles of member orientation and the principle of identity – it links the focus on specific target groups with a regional or ideological surplus value.

This paper provides a brief critical appraisal of the relationality of German cities in the world city network. The paper is divided into four parts. After the introduction, part two highlights the major findings of each individual contribution to this special issue, and teases out the major patterns of German world city connectivity at both the international and domestic scale. This is followed in part three by a critical evaluation of the sum of all the individual paper findings, which comments on their aggregated contribution to three significant themes in world city studies: methods and empirics, theory and policy. The final part of the paper considers an alternative research agenda, calling for more qualitative research and engagement with in-depth, process-based studies of German world city networks, which will analyse both attributive and relational data.

This paper identifies hubs of knowledge-based labour in the German urban system from two perspectives: the importance of a metropolitan region as a place and the importance of a metropolitan region as an organisational node. This combination of a network perspective with a territorial perspective enables the identification of hubs. From the functional perspective, hubs are understood as important nodes of national and global networks, established by flows of people, goods, capital and information as well as by organisational and power relations. From the territorial perspective, hubs are understood as spatial clusters of organisations (firms, public authorities, non-governmental organisations). The functional focus of the paper lies on knowledge-based services. Based on data about employment and multi-branch advanced producer service firms, four main types of metropolitan regions are identified: growing knowledge hubs, stagnating knowledge hubs, stagnating knowledge regions and catch-up knowledge regions. The results show an affinity between knowledge-based work and bigger metropolitan regions as well as an east-west divide in the German urban system.

This paper adopts a global perspective to investigate external relations of German cities, both transnationally and on the national scale. At the centre of the analysis are the locational strategies of major advanced producer service firms that link the cities in which they operate through a multitude of flows. Using an interlocking network model and data on the organizational structure of leading business service firms, the paper measures and interprets the extent to which German cities were integrated in the world city network in 2008. The global positions and national network patterns of 14 major German cities are explored, as well as the sectoral strengths and geographical orientations of their external relations. The paper concludes with an assessment of the trajectory of German cities in the world city network between the turn of the twenty-first century and the onset of the current financial crisis. The analysis reveals a geography of advanced producer services that is polycentric in character but does not map directly onto the distribution of other metropolitan functions. In a longitudinal perspective, German cities experienced an absolute and relative decline in global network connectivity between 2000 and 2008, which raises questions about the changing strategic importance of German cities in the world city network.

Data on cultural infrastructures in Germany are characterised by great heterogeneity in terms of availability and analytical comparability. This is evident in functional typologisations, which are largely limited to major cities and to a small number of cultural indicators. Furthermore, the ongoing discussions about the provision of services of general interest lack quantifiable and qualifiable substantiation that adequately take into account not only technical facilities but also infrastructures that facilitate everyday social life, including educational and cultural amenities. The aim of this paper is to identify location patterns of cultural infrastructures focusing on small and medium-sized towns, which have been largely neglected analytically.We apply a principal component analysis to comprehensive data on infrastructures of nine cultural sectors in order to identify spatial patterns of agglomeration. The linear dimensionality reduction resulted in three components, “Everyday Culture and High Culture”, “Reading and Art” and “Making Music and Educating Oneself”. The results emphasise the role of small and medium-sized towns in providing differentiated cultural services of general interest and provide systematic links for cultural governance.

Spatial planning is called on to contribute to managing risks associated with outages of infrastructure services deemed particularly important in the context of critical infrastructure protection. This paper explores indications of overlaps between critical infrastructure sectors and the fields of Daseinsvorsorge (services of general interests) which have not yet received much attention in expert discussions. It provides a comparison of critical infrastructure sectors and variants of lists of the fields of Daseinsvorsorge. Although the extent of the overlaps cannot be determined exactly, it can be assumed that most of the infrastructures considered tobe critical are involved in the provision of services associated with the concept of Daseinsvorsorge. Hence the infrastructures and services in question are subject to different policy areas and interventions carried out in accordance with them. This inference calls for consideration of the implications of the spatial organization of the provision of Daseinsvorsorge services for critical infrastructure protection. A change of perspective, i.e. looking at the aims and means of Daseinsvorsorge planning from the point of view of critical infrastructure protection, enhances the visibility of their potential ‘side effects’. As the concept of critical infrastructure incorporates both worthiness of protection and a certain hazard potential, a change of perspective leads to unfamiliar perceptions of the spatial planning of Daseinsvorsorge and raises academic and practical questions.

This paper answers two rarely considered questions: How well do German regions exploit their potential to produce renewable energy and which factors impact on this exploitation efficiency? By applying the new quantitative-empirical concept of exploitation efficiency, we measure the degree, to which regions have exploited their natural and socio-economic potentials of producing energy from renewable source at a specific point in time. This approach allows, with respect to wind power, solar power and biogas energy, a relative comparison of regions, monitoring their performance over time as well as the identification of best-practice regions. Applying our innovative method, we compare German districts in the time period 2000-2014. We use a robust, non-parametric efficiency analysis and validate its results by qualitative expert interviews in selected counties in Lower Saxony. The results show strong disparities in terms of the exploitation efficiency between districts and federal states. This exploitation efficiency moreover varies significantly for different types of renewable energy. We also observe specialization tendencies in this context. Our empirical results are very detailed both from a spatial and from a temporal perspective and therefore allow for drawing several conclusions for local and federal state policies. For instance, those districts (and federal states) with currently rather low exploitation efficiencies need to learn from those with high efficiencies. Such learning effects may sustainably contribute to a successful turnaround in energy policy.

Policy instruments are of central importance for the diffusion of renewable energy technologies. They can compensate for politically desired effects (e.g. reduction of emissions) which are not adequately addressed by the market. This relation can also be seen in the development of offshore wind energy in Germany. However, I argue in this paper that the policy instruments implemented during the initial phase of the development were not only unsuitable for diminishing obstacles but rather created conflicts which hampered the development of offshore wind energy. Especially the lack of spatial regulations in the beginning of the process promoted conflicts of use and environmental conflicts and led to an uncontrolled development which prevented an efficient grid connection. By modifying old or implementing new instruments political actors tried to improve the framing conditions for the development of offshore wind energy in Germany. Based on a document analysis and expert interviews, these regulatory efforts are analysed from an innovation perspective using the constellation analysis, which specifically takes the interaction of the various policy instruments and central socio-economic, technical and natural factors into account. This way it can be shown that it was only after a lengthy learning and negotiation process that suitable policy instruments were implemented that led to the development of overall suitable framework conditions for the development of offshore wind energy.

Many employees must cope with long distances between their workplaces and residences. While some employees manage these distances via daily commuting, if distances are very large, employees may be required to relocate permanently (sometimes with their families) or to establish second homes closer to their workplaces. A typical form of the latter multi-local living arrangements is for the employee to live in their second home during the week and return to their primary (family) home for the weekend (weekend commute). Using data from the German Microcensus 1991-2012, this paper first examines changes over time in rates of weekend commuting among employees in Germany. Second, it explores socio-demographic characteristics related to weekend commuting and whether gender differences exist. Results show continuously increasing rates of weekend commuting, rising from 0.34% in 1991 to 1.02% in 2008. Weekend commuting has thus approximately tripled, with a total of 339,000 weekend commuters in 2008. The number of impacted individuals doubles if weekend commuters’ partners and children are also considered. In contrast to the long-term trend, in 2012, reported rates of weekend commuting declined. We discuss how this drop may reflect a methodological bias rather than true decreases in weekend commuting. We observed gender differences in the factors contributing to weekend commuting, most notably the impacts of family living arrangements and occupational status. Compared to previous investigations of weekend commuting, the large sample size of the current analyses permitted identification of more nuanced relations among gender, age, geographic region, and other factors influencing weekend commuting choices.

In 2007 the German Bundestag issued an extensive parliamentary report on “Culture in Germany” that spurred broad debates about the role of cultural institutions in urban and regional planning. Subsequently, these infrastructures gained particular importance in discussions on the cultural and creative industries as nodes for professional activities and marketplaces for cultural goods. By analyzing the material and discursive trajectories of alternative cultural and community centres in Germany the paper argues that economic perspectives on spaces of creativity obscure important dimensions of creative practices. Firstly, conceptions of creativity as a defining feature of occupations and economic sectors imply that creative pursuits are ultimately determined by patterns of supply and demand. Mundane activities on a day-to-day basis however show that alternative creativities are frequently driven by voluntary engagements, personal desires and affection towards people and ideas. Secondly, as studies on the creative industries offer rather current diagnoses of cultural infrastructures the historical dimension of political discussions is often missing from theses analyses. Established since the 1960s, alternative cultural institutions are conceptualized as sustainable meeting places that offer spaces for communication, self-determination and free play. Finally, creative industry thinking emphasizes specific geographical contexts for creative production. The overriding observation is one of urban agglomeration and spatial clustering. The mapping of alternative cultural infrastructures reveals a more complex and nuanced geography of non-profit creativity that encompasses material spaces in suburban and more rural areas. Cultural and community centres offer an important and sometimes occasional anchor point for creativity in these peripheries lacking publicly funded and privately financed cultural infrastructures.

The maritime economy as a heterogeneous innovation system has ongoing relevance to the successful spatial and functional development of regions in Europe. A strong technological knowledge base underpins the competitiveness of the maritime economy, which is grounded in distinct spatial structures and proximities. The simultaneous relevance of global and local knowledge is particularly pronounced in the maritime economy through its inherent relevance to globalization and structural change. Conventional classifications of the maritime economy embedded in the discussion of the spatialization of knowledge-intensive activities and global value chains, however, limit the analysis to certain parts of the maritime cluster. This paper examines the applicability of various discourses on interactive knowledge generation and application as a process, based on a comprehensive dataset derived from cooperative links within the maritime economy of northern Germany. It suggests a framework for analysis that is activity based and focuses on the concurrent presence of different dimensions of proximity across value-creating systems. We explore spatial patterns by means of social network analysis. These patterns are industry-specific and have the potential to inform efforts to increase functional as well as physical connectivity in regions. The empirical analysis begins with the individual firm as an actor seeking to optimize its location for the purpose of competitiveness. It proposes an approach that is rooted in the ongoing discussion on spatial and functional dispositions for innovation activity and that bridges the dichotomy of knowledge-intensive services and manufacturing activities in the maritime economy.

The research project CC-LandStraD analyses interactions between land use and climate change. It therefore contributes to the challenges of climate change and the availability of scarce land resources. Within the project, land use scenarios are developed for Germany until the year 2030. The focus of this study is on the development of settlement and transport area. The approach applies the simulation model Land Use Scanner that integrates and combines different types of data. This includes statistical information on the socio-economic development as well as numerous spatial data sets like current land use, physical properties or spatial planning regulations. The paper introduces the different data sets, describes the modeling approach and demonstrates how the various data sets are used in the simulation model Land Use Scanner to calculate a spatial land use scenario for Germany in 2030. The model therefore integrates data sets of different spatial, temporal and thematic resolutions and consistently merges the information of different scales. The results of the model show that despite demographic change some regions still face high pressure of urban density in Germany.

Resilience refers to the ability of a regional economy to recover from external shocks and to return to a sustainable growth path afterwards. This paper departs from the assumption that by improving a region’s organising capacity, cluster policies can strengthen regional resilience. We argue that the impact of cluster policies on regional resilience depends on the portfolio of clusters targeted for promotion, which may increase specialisation, unrelated or related variety in a region’s economic fabric. Based on a multidimensional model of cluster policies, case study evidence from seven German regions is drawn from an interview survey of 145 practitioners, policy advisors and independent observers. By illustrating the connections between cluster policy, organising capacity, and specialisation versus variety, these findings can be linked conceptually to regional economic resilience. This argument allows for some policy recommendations and the formulation of issues for further research.

This introduction to the special issue “German cities in the world city network” provides an overview of the current status of research on urban systems in the knowledge economy, with a particular focus on the German urban system. The first part identifies the knowledge economy, particularly the requirements for geographical and relational proximity along the value chain, as a key driver of contemporary urban development. The second part clarifies the concept of polycentricity, distinguishing between its political and analytical roots, while considering its application on different spatial scales. Based on this discussion, the third part emphasizes the importance of relational thinking in analyzing polycentric urban systems and functional urban hierarchies. This is followed by an outline of the specific contribution of each paper to our understanding of the relational geographies of the German urban space-economy.

On a regional scale, two types of polycentricity can be observed. The first involves polycentric metropolitan regions that have evolved in the course of post-suburban development around a previously monocentric city, whereas the second type involves neighbouring metropolises evolving into a multi-core polycentric metropolitan region due to an increase in the functional interaction between each other. The German urban system is characterised by both types of polycentricity. In this paper I examine the role of these two types of polycentricity within the context of globalisation. I address the question of whether individual metropolitan cores and metropolitan cores and their associated post-suburban areas share the global functions of a metropolitan region or whether such functions are concentrated in a single city within the metropolitan region. To this end, I analyse the locations of leading global advanced producer service firms in Germany in their role as sub-nodes of the world city network. Finally, I discuss the empirical findings in the context of modelling the world city network.

the knowledge economy is a key driver of spatial development in metropolitan regions. a relational perspec- tive on its business activities emphasizes the importance of knowledge-intensive firms and their networking strategies. the aim of this paper is to analyse the spatial networking patterns created by the interaction of knowledge-intensive firms and to place these activities in the theoretical context of the knowledge economy. Our central question is which large-scale interlocking networks and functional urban hi- erarchies are produced by advanced Producer services and High-Tech firms located in Germany. The intra-firm loca- tional networks of these companies are analysed on three spatial scales: global, national and regional. the empirical findings show that the functional urban hierarchy in the german city system proves to be steeper than is claimed by the political debate on german Mega-city regions.

When the EU Directive on the geological storage of carbon dioxide came into force, Germany found itself under pressure to develop a legal framework for the exploration and operation of CO2-storage sites. But the German regulatory approach stands against fierce opposition from the public - in particular at specific CO2-storage site regions, namely in Brandenburg and Schleswig- Holstein. This article takes a closer look on the German situation, analyzing the impact factors of the lack of public accpetance and discussing options to overcome an upcoming major societal conflict. First, we review the national and international state of the art of CCS public acceptance research. Second, explanations are given for better understanding the nature of the local opposition in Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein. In the third part we draw conclusions elaborating on key aspects relevant for a promising handling of the CCS public acceptance issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]