Structural Change in European Border Zone Agglomerations

This study is an investigation of the transformationof the economic structure of two border city regions,Saarbrücken and Copenhagen. The reason for acomparative analysis is that they have a similarindustrial background that was declining andaccompanied by the rise of the service sector in thesecond half of the 20th century. This decline ofindustry also brought a transformation of theeconomic structure as well as new branches ofeconomic activity. The transformation processaccelerated and the economic development differed inthe respective cases for the last two decades. Thefact that regions can induce dynamism in economy viadevelopments if they create attractive conditions forcapital and highly educated labour force has beenobserved. In addition to that, the sharedcharacteristic as being part of a cross borderagglomeration and their potential to integrate withthe cities in their neighbouring countries France andSweden is also part of the investigation.

Autorentext

Jan-Philipp Exner got his MSc in European Spatial Planning at the BTH / Karlskrona and is student of Spatial and Environmental Planning at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. Ergin Yücel got his MSc in European Spatial Planning at the BTH / Karlskrona and his BSc in Statistics at the Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul.

Klappentext
This study is an investigation of the transformation of the economic structure of two border city regions, Saarbrücken and Copenhagen. The reason for a comparative analysis is that they have a similar industrial background that was declining and accompanied by the rise of the service sector in the second half of the 20th century. This decline of industry also brought a transformation of the economic structure as well as new branches of economic activity. The transformation process accelerated and the economic development differed in the respective cases for the last two decades. The fact that regions can induce dynamism in economy via developments if they create attractive conditions for capital and highly educated labour force has been observed. In addition to that, the shared characteristic as being part of a cross border agglomeration and their potential to integrate with the cities in their neighbouring countries France and Sweden is also part of the investigation.