The course is focused on cities and city networks and their role for sustainable development, competitiveness and territorial cohesion. Different guiding principles for urban and regional development are discussed in relation to prevailing national and EU policies. Among these the concept of polycentric functional urban regions is discussed which is of great importance for rising the competitive power of the European Union according to the Lisbon agenda. The preconditons for a polycentric development differ, however, with regard to location, size, density, accesssibility and structure and this is highlighted in the course from an analytical point of view. There will be course elements aiming at providing insights into how various urban structures will reshape the economic and social conditions in metropolitan regions as well as in smaller settlements and rural areas in differing regional and national contexts where the preconditions are of quite different character.
The increasing integration on regional, European and global level are of great importance both for cities in networks and individual cities with respect to strenghten the competetiveness and the image of cities of various kinds and locations. Urban planning, including city marketing and urban reconstruction strategies, will also be discussed in the course. This is also valid regarding peripheral cities where the precondions for city networking differ compared to cities in more densely populated regions where the accessiblity is better. This means that various cities, city systems and city networks will be analysed and evaluated both in lectures, literature and paper writings.
The project will contain both lectures and paper writings. Project assistants will be available to supervise the student groups.