An Agenda for Creative Governance in City Regions

Abstract

Multiple constraints hinder regional institutions and actors to initiate cooperation in city regions. One constraint of future- oriented city region development is the lack of creativity. Since a decade or more, all city regions in Germany are experimenting with some or the other form of inter-governmental cooperation. Some have been successful in establishing regional institutions, others have rather favored informal cooperation agreements or are still struggling to find appropriate ways and means to organize regional cooperation. Too many constraints have to be overcome. Drawing on the experience in Germany, ten suggestions for more creative governance in city regions have been made and briefly sketched. They range from allowing flexible boundaries to the promotion of regional innovation networks, from supporting the Third Sector to the communication of intra-re- gional success stories. Implementing the suggested agenda requires much political good will and strong leadership by visionary politicians and professionals who know how and when to start implementing one or the other item on the above agenda. In particular, it requires multiple creativity: creative institutions and creative actors, creative strategies and creative processes, and creative financing.