The politics of making regions—competitiveness and the re-/presentation of territoriality in europe—the cases of the international Øresund (greater copenhagen) region and the capital city region berlin-brandenburg

Abstract

This chapter discusses the challenges for political legitimacy posed by the focus on, and role of, cities in framing national and regional, and, increasingly, global, economic development and opportunities. By rising above their respective territorial contexts as they shape and join networks that reach far beyond, cities highlight and reinforce unevenness in opportunities, lifestyles and ambitions, as well as perceived relevance in political processes and governance practices. This inequality broadens with growing mismatches between the mainly urban ‘winners’ and the less fortunate prospects for non-urban areas. Those may feel increasingly peripheralised and ‘left behind’ by opportunities and ‘voice’ in political–economic decisions that seem dominated and shaped by urban-defined interests. Two examples are presented here to illustrate the challenges posed by the intersection of—and mismatch between—city and city network spaces with hazyborders on the one hand, and conventional state-defined territories with fixed, clear administrative borders, on the other. Both regions,the Øresund Region (now Greater Copenhagen) and the Capital City Region of Berlin-Brandenburg, also include distinct administrative boundaries. Important for the argument here is the existence of a ‘gap’ between the two types of geographic entities—selective, network-defined economic opportunity spaces, and the suggested comprehensive territorial egality of interest representation in a democratic state.