New forms of territorial governance in metropolitan regions? A Polish–German comparison

Abstract

The governance of metropolitan affairs emerges as one of the crucial issues in many countries. The academic debate shows a bias towards categories and descriptions based on North American and, to a lesser degree, West European experiences. Based on the results of comparative research on metropolitan regions in Germany and in Poland, we can say that there is much more diversity than convergence in the practice of regional reform in the studied cases. Moreover, the normative and analytical framework of the new regionalism is not as appropriate to describe the Polish and -to a lesser extent -the German metropolitan reality as it is widely assumed. Recently emerging metropolitan arrangements bear the features of novelty, but at the same time most of them still lean strongly on governmental premises. Surprisingly, despite obvious differences between the two countries, some cross-national similarities are noticeable between the metropolises, which share some characteristics such as the position of a front-runner in the national economy or the national exponent in the global city hierarchy. The main difference can be identified in the economic focus of the metropolitan governance arrangements. Whereas this is a dominant approach in German city-regions, in Poland it still remains low on the agenda, at least in practice. Moreover the involvement of non-governmental actors in metropolitan initiatives is much lower in Poland.

Towards a versatile and multidimensional framework to analyse regional governance

“…Thematic frameworks cover a wide range of different topics, from environmental governance (Bulkeley, 2005; Jordan et al., 2015; Wallington et al., 2008) to the role of regional development agencies in state rescaling (Ayres and Stafford, 2014; MacKinnon and Shaw, 2010; MacLeavy and Harrison, 2010; Pape et al., 2015; Pearce and Ayres, 2009). Also, several authors have proposed frameworks for diverse regional contexts, such as urban (Lackowska and Zimmermann, 2011; Pradel-Miquel, 2015) and cross-border governance (Deppisch, 2012; Nelles and Durand, 2014; Zäch and Pütz, 2014) or for comparing protected areas (Pütz and Job, 2016; Pütz et al., 2017) or different LEADER networks in rural regions across European countries in order to identify different governance styles (Mose et al., 2014).…”

Transnationalisation of development strategies in East Central European cities: A survey of the shortlisted Polish European Capital of Culture candidate cities

“…This is based on the approach of globalisation meaning “the return to the idea of a city-state”, which is reflected in the process of metropolitanisation (Parysek, 2006: 34). As the tasks of municipalities extend beyond close city boundaries, cities try to organise metropolitan cooperative structures, thus focusing public investment, combining strengths and balancing weaknesses in order to increase competitiveness (Lackowska and Zimmermann, 2010). This in turn is the base for integrating the city into transnational urban networks, whose relations are increasingly replacing those within traditional international city associations or between twinned cities (Kern, 2001).…”

“…The different approaches towards the integration of the urban region in the ECOC applications quite explicitly reflect the problems of building metropolitan structures (tab. 2) in an atmosphere that is, first, often dominated by rivalry between municipalities (Lackowska and Zimmermann, 2010) and, second, lacking support from central government. For instance in the case of the so-called Tri-City – Gdańsk together with the city of Gdynia and the popular seaside resort of Sopot – the local climate is characterised by competition between the two big cities.…”

Metropolitan governance(or not!) in Poland and the United States

“…Between 1999 and 2013 various forms were launched in a few Polish metropolitan areas (e.g. Wroclaw, Katowice, Poznan, Szczecin, Gdansk, see: Lackowska and Zimmermann 2011;Krukowska and Lackowska 2016), and after the introduction of a new financial instrument of the European Union -Integrated Territorial Investments -yet more movement in metropolitan arrangements has appeared.…”

“…In most of these cases dissatisfaction led to a diminution of cooperative initiatives (as in the Polish cases of Wroclaw and Gdansk, [see Lackowska and Zimmermann 2011;Lackowska-Madurowicz 2012]). The new wave of metro reforms in some countries indicates something of a shift from economic to political arguments (with central governmental action undertaken).…”