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During the last months the discussion on a strategy for the Danube Region as a new approach for a European macro-region has been intensified, predominantly within the area of Central and South-Eastern Europe. Evidently the territory of the Danube Region is characterized by a divergent group of countries concerning the process of integration and the preconditions in geographic, economic, cultural and socio-demographic terms. Besides, the region’s spatial development shows divergent trends causing increasing regional disparities. Therefore, territorial cohesion - understood as intensified functional interrelations and strategic cooperation - is jeopardized in manifold ways. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to discuss the basic features of a strategy aiming at strengthening the polycentric development on different spatial levels. We start by assuming that the development of every city (as an element of the urban system) depends on its territorial capital and relevant assets providing location based advantages regarding its competitiveness on different spatial levels. Therefore we uncover what we understand as assets driving urban development. In this context the meaning of polycentric development and the importance of polycentric structures as an asset of a city’s territorial capital is being revealed. Based on these conceptual considerations we examine some relevant features of the urban polycentric system in the Danube region and finally argue that a multilevel and evidence based approach should be evolved facing the differences in the preconditions and already existing assets of spatial development

“Red Vienna” refers to a phase of urban development in Vienna, Austria, between 1919 and 1934. Inspired by ideas of municipal socialism, the Social Democratic Workers' Party implemented local social reforms to improve the living conditions of the working class. Policies were aimed particularly at the fields of housing, welfare, and healthcare, as well as education. While Red Vienna came to an end more than 80 years ago, the reforms continue to shape Vienna's urban development today. Moreover, Red Vienna remains a key reference point in contemporary debates about egalitarian and progressive modes of urban planning.

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Media discourses always consider Vienna as a »cultural city«. This study shows how such a perception is skilfully shaped by political constructions of cultural imaginaries in and of the city. The book unveils how simplistic cognitive interpretations of culture not only define an unquestioned, reductionist idea of the city's cultural character - it also explains how these imaginaries influence the recent urban development practice in one of Europe's globalizing cities.