What influence do informal (market and discursive) instruments in spatial development have on the evolution of regional governance structures and planning practices in different types of city regions? This question is the focus of the project.

Regional governance structures, in which spatial development is steered by politics and planning, change over time due to new challenges (e.g. due to regional location competition). Planning practices, e.g. in regional settlement planning, also change.

The project investigates the influence of funding programmes and spatial models on the change of governance structures and regional settlement planning in different types of city regions such as metropolitan regions, cross-border metropolitan regions and regiopolitan regions.

The project will run for one year and is funded by the Central Research Fund (ZFF) of the University of Kassel.

Prof. Dr. Anna Growe and Lukas Häfner are working on the project. The international cooperation partner is Dr. John Harrison of Loughborough University.

Updates on the project can be followed here.