Abstract
In this paper, we explore the hypothesis that contemporary geographies of economic activities within metropolitan areas in Europe are moving into polycentric configurations. Our contribution is based on results derived from an analysis of 7 metropolises that were brought together within the EU-funded research programme “COMET” (namely Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Strasbourg and Vienna). We first build on an enquiry of enterprises in these 7 cities, then document the nature and localisation of the multiple metropolitan (sub)centres by bringing together the expertise of scholars and institutional partners in each city – case study. The paper ends up with a discussion on the implications of contemporary intra-metropolitan reconfigurations for both urban researchers and policy-makers. Our results confirm the starting hypothesis, that is, far from a scenario of generalized dilution of the urban form, European metropolitan areas show the emergence of (diverse) configurations wherein urban functions are distributed among a series of (sub-)centres, with CBDs and inner-city districts no longer acting as sole location for key economic activities.
Highlights
Electronic reference Mathieu Van Criekingen, Marie Bachmann, Christophe Guisset and Moritz Lennert, « Towards polycentric cities
Central city locations do not vanish, rather their role in the urban economy is repositioned within a grid of networkedcentres at the metropolitan scale
10 Generally speaking, EU-funded research programmes have been much more concerned with polycentric development at the inter-urban or inter-regional scale rather than at the intra-metropolitan scale (Kloosterman and Musterd, 2001; Davoudi, 2003). This privileged perspective on urban change is in line with the call for polycentric development of the European territory put forward in the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) adopted in May 1999
Summary
An investigation into the restructuring of intra-metropolitan spatial configurations in Europe. La restructuration des configurations spatiales intramétropolitaines en Europe. ISSN: 2294-9135 Publisher: National Committee of Geography of Belgium, Société Royale Belge de Géographie Printed version Date of publication: 1 January 2007 Number of pages: 31-50 ISSN: 1377-2368. Electronic reference Mathieu Van Criekingen, Marie Bachmann, Christophe Guisset and Moritz Lennert, « Towards polycentric cities. An investigation into the restructuring of intra-metropolitan spatial configurations in Europe », Belgeo [Online], 1 | 2007, Online since 09 December 2013, connection on 19 April 2019. This text was automatically generated on 19 April 2019. An investigation into the restructuring of intra-
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