Abstract
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.
Zusammenfassung
Diese Einleitung zum Themenheft „German cities in the world city network“ gibt einen Überblick über den aktuellen Stand der Erforschung von Städtesystemen im Kontext der Wissensökonomie, mit besonderem Fokus auf das deutsche Städtesystem. Der erste Teil identifiziert die Wissensökonomie und ihren Bedarf an geographischer und relationaler Nähe im unternehmerischen Wertschöpfungsprozess als zentralen Treiber der räumlichen Entwicklung in Metropolitanräumen. Der zweite Teil erläutert das Konzept der Polyzentralität. Dabei wird zwischen einem politischen und einem analytischen Ansatz unterschieden sowie die Anwendung des Konzepts auf unterschiedlichen räumlichen Maßstabsebenen thematisiert. Basierend auf dieser Diskussion wird im dritten Teil die Bedeutung eines relationalen Ansatzes zur Untersuchung von polyzentrischen urbanen Systemen und funktional-räumlichen Hierarchien hervorgehoben. Zum Schluss wird ein kurzer Überblick über die Einzelbeiträge des Themenheftes gegeben und insbesondere deren Beitrag zum Verständnis der relationalen Geographie im deutschen Städtesystem betont.
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Notes
The papers published here were first presented at the 2010 Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, in three sessions on ‘German cities in the world city network’ organized by the guest editors of this special issue of “Raumforschung und Raumordnung”.
See http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc.
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Thierstein, A., Lüthi, S. & Hoyler, M. Introduction: German Cities in the World City Network. Raumforsch Raumordn 69, 141–146 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13147-011-0098-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13147-011-0098-y