- From Government to Governance? - Cooperative Regional Development in the Munich Region   click here to open paper content158 kb
by    Reiss-Schmidt, Stephan | Kuehner.ReissSchmidt@t-online.de   click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper
Short Outline
For Munich Metropolitan Region (2.6 mio. inhabitants), risks and chances of identity, prosperity and quality of life are analysed. Voluntary, informal organisation structures are discussed versus more powerful and binding models. What form of regional governance will be adequate for the future needs of a still growing region and the intentions of the stakeholders ?
Abstract
The Munich Region with 2.6 mio. inhabitants is one of the most attractive and successful regions in Germany. Since the Olympic Summer Games of 1972, Munich became a dream city for students, highly qualified experts in the IT-and biotech-industry or the media business - and for tourists from all over the world.
The new international airport, opened 1992, became soon one of the busiest hubs in Europe and an important growth-engine. Future challenges occur by an increasing number of immigrants from southern and (south)eastern Europe, by the aging society and by a very strong tied housing market with the highest land prices and rents in Germany.
Traditionally, the self government of the regions 185 local authorities is strong and the regional organisations for planning, public transport, recreation areas, nature preservation etc., created since 1950, are manyfold and relativly weak. Deficits are a lack of strategic regional management and of an equal balance of the (financial) advantages and disadvantages of regional development.
Only by flexible, but binding operational regional management and a regional budget, the future challenges of economic development, housing and infrastructure will be met. Nevertheless, more advanced models from Stuttgart or Hannover can not be simply adopted. Instead, foundations are layed out by patient confidence-building. Cooperation in federal competitions, research projects and ''win-win-projects'' like the Federal Garden Exhibition 2005, are examples. Obviously, the increasing interdependence within metropolitan regions requires an integration of policies on a higher level. Of course: ''the future of the city is the region'' - but in fact, the central city is a generator of creativity and innovation that constitutes the regions profile and identity.

Other participants are invited to learn something about the driving forces of one of the most dynamic second level European Metroplitan Regions; to discuss strategies and instruments for a sustainable regional development; to compare conditions and effectiveness of different models of regional governance (from soft/informal to hard/formal) and their political, social and cultural implications.

Keywords
European Metropolitan Regions, Grrowth and quality of life, regional governance structures, formal vs. informal organisations
Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2004: Management of Urban Regions
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