Background: The world of today is immensely interconnected. Over the past decades, national economies have been de-bordered and the promoting of the flows of goods, people, capital and services across the borders is evident, as opposed to when flows only moved within national economies. Former vertical structures of old nations have been replaced by a horizontal flow structure in a complex and intertwined global economy. Attracting flows is essential for the growth and survival of cities. Hubs functions as important connection points for these flows and are therefore highly important. Research procedure: The purpose of this thesis is to describe how city regions function from a hub perspective by mapping the most important hubs in the Oresund Region, and investigating the connectivity and collaboration between these hubs. This study has a qualitative and inductive approach with a case study design and the empirical findings is based on twelve interviews with representatives of different fields. Results: The most important hubs were divided into three categories: transport, economic and infrastructure hubs, illustrated in the hub categorization model. The results indicate that there is a interconnectivity issue with interdependencies between the different hubs in the Oresund Region. This is illustrated through the hub relationship model. Collaboration seems to take place mostly within sectors and through the municipalities..

This paper investigates the effect of the reduction of transport cost Oresundsbron has caused between the two subregions of the Oresund-region. The paper utilizes the the Helpman (1998) model and the procedure used by Hanson (2005) for estimating this equation. The paperbrings a clear inside into the method and thus provides an excellent start-ing position.

Ausgehend von der Annahme, dass die Ostseeregion primär eine von Städten und urbanen Zentren geprägte Region ist, untersucht diese Studie die Entstehung und Entwicklung grenzüberschreitender Zusammenarbeit von Großstradtregionen im Ostseeraum. Auf der Grundlage poststrukturalistischer Forschungsansätze ergänzt durch Governancetheorien wird ein umfassendes theoretisches Instrumentarium erarbeitet, mit dem drei Fälle grenzüberschreitender Zusammenarbeit von Großstadtregionen aus der Ostseeregion untersucht werden. Die konzeptionelle Grundidee besteht hierbei darin, Vergleichbarkeit nicht durch die Anwendung vorher festgelegter Kriterien, sondern durch die Formulierung und Anwendung eines gleichbleibenden Katalogs offener Forschungsfragen herzustellen. Zunächst werden für diese Arbeit drei Einzelfallstudien zur Öresundregion, Göteborg-Oslo Region und der Euregio Helsinki-Tallinn erstellt. Dann werden in einer vergleichenden Gegenüberstellung Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede erarbeitet und auf dieser Grundlage Faktoren, welche die Entstehung und Entwicklung grenzüberschreitender Zusammenarbeit begünstigen, abgeleitet. Darüber hinaus rückt das Ergebnis der Analyse drei weitere Aspekte für die Entwicklung grenzüberschreitende Zusammenarbeit in den Mittelpunkt, die in angewendeten theoretischen Ansätzen bisher unberücksichtigt geblieben sind, die aber erheblichen Einfluss auf die Entwicklung der einzelnen Region haben: geographische Lage, Timing und Marginalisierung. / Based on the assumption that the Baltic Sea Region is primarily composed of cities and urban areas, this study explores the evolution and development of the cross-border cooperation of large urban areas in the Baltic Sea Region. Using post-structuralist theoretical approaches supplemented with governance theory, the study develops a comprehensive theoretical tool for the analysis of three cases of cross-border cooperation of urban areas in the Balitc Sea Region. The conceptual idea was to safeguard comparability through the application of a common set of open research questions, rather than to apply a set of pre-given criteria. First, this piece of research provides the three single case studies of the Oresund Region, the Gothenburg-Oslo Region and the Euregio Helsinki-Tallinn. Then a comparative analysis elaborates on the commonalities and differences and derives supporting factors for cross-border cooperation based on that background. Finally, the comparative analysis also points to three additional relevant aspects for the development of cross-border cooperation that have not been included into the theoretical approaches but which had remarkable influence on the development of the single cases: geographical localisation, timing and marginalisation.