Die jüngste Vergangenheit und Gegenwart ist durch eine auffällige Dominanz des Marktes gekennzeichnet, politische Systeme werden ebenso tangiert wie Räume. Standortalternativen von Betrieben erweitern sich, Standortqualitäten werden neu bewertet. Dies ist grundsätzlich nichts Neues, doch unterscheidet sich das Ausmaß u.die Geschwindigkeit dieser Ent-wicklung sehr von jener der Vergangenheit. Dieser Prozess wird als Globalisierung bezeichnet. Immobile Regionen sind in einen Wettbewerb um mobile wirtschaftliche Akteure u. mobiles Humankapital getreten. Mithilfe von fünf als relevant unterstellten Standortfaktoren ? Regionale Netzwerkfähigkeit; Markt- und Kundenorientierung; Innovation und Humankapital; Verkehrsinfrastruktur und weiche Standortfaktoren - werden die regionalen Standortqualitäten am Beispiel der Rolle der produktionsorientierten Dienstleister, d.h. der eigentlichen Produktion vor- bzw. nachgelagerten, aber auch der sie begleitenden Leistungen, untersucht. Von ihnen wird erwartet, dass sie bei der Umgestaltung der Wirtschaftsstrukturen und für eine Rationalisierung sowie einer daraus folgenden Steigerung der Wertschöpfung ein hohes Gewicht haben. Verarbeitendes Gewerbe und produktionsorientierte Dienstleiter bilden eine symbiotische Beziehung. Die Globalisierung trifft in West- und in Ostdeutschland auf sehr verschiedene Strukturen von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Diese Verschiedenheit lässt unterschiedliche Anpassungs-prozesse erwarten. Produktionsorientierte Dienstleister suchen häufig eine räumliche Nähe zum verarbeitenden Gewerbe. In der Region Leipzig fehlt die Nachfrage nach produktionsorientierten Dienstleistungen als Folge eines zu geringen Besatzes im verarbeitenden Gewerbe. In der Region Stuttgart wird insgesamt mit einer steigenden Nachfrage nach Dienstleistungen gerechnet. Dies basiert auf einer weiteren Konzentration auf betriebliche Kernkompetenzen und einer damit verbundenen Spezialisierung bzw. Rationalisierung, insbesondere von Betrieben des sekundären Sektors, welchem Outsourcing-Potenzial unterstellt wird. Stadt/Umland. Der Beitrag des suburbanen Raumes für die Entwicklung der Region Leipzig wird heute positiv bewertet. Die Phase der egoistischen kommunalen Ansiedlungspolitik konnte durch die Eingemeindung von Umlandgemeinden zur Stadt Leipzig gebremst werden. Die Suburbanisierung in der Region Stuttgart dauert bereits einige Jahrzehnte und traf auf bestehende Siedlungsstrukturen. Sie sind meist längst suburban geprägt. Die Umland-kommunen unterscheiden sich dadurch von jenen des suburbanen Raumes in der Region Leipzig. Regionale Clusterbildung. Die Ansprüche des globalen Marktes bieten Chancen aber auch Risiken. Neben einer Globalisierungsstrategie muss aber, mindestens gleichrangig, jene der Regionalisierung verfolgt werden. Regionale Standortqualitäten werden aufgewertet. Regionale Cluster sind dann wettbewerbsfähig, wenn die zu erbringenden Leistungen, meist als Ergebnis einer Vernetzung von Resultaten aus Forschung und Entwicklung unterschiedlicher wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen, im globalen Maßstab wettbewerbsfähig sind. Dazu bedarf es: - einer Stärkung der Raumentwicklung - einer regionalen flexiblen Wirtschaftsstruktur (Wirtschaftscluster) regionaler Kreisläufe - Imagebildung durch weiche Standortqualitäten - Qualifizierung regionalen Humankapitals - (über-)regionalen Kooperationen - persönlicher Beziehungen zwischen regionalen Akteuren - Aufbau einer leistungsfähigen Forschungs- und Entwicklungsstrategie und der Umsetzung der Ergebnisse in der Region In der Region Leipzig wird es in erster Linie darum gehen, die Ergebnisse aus Forschung und Entwicklung in regionale Nachfrage, insbesondere durch das verarbeitende Gewerbe und in Arbeitsplätze aller Qualifikationsniveaus, umzusetzen. Für die Region Stuttgart liegt der Schwerpunkt in der Umstrukturierung alter Industrien entsprechend den Anforderungen globaler Nachfrage und dient damit der Sicherung des Wirtschaftsclusters. / Our recent past and the present time have been marked by an obvious dominance of the market, political systems as well as areas are affected. Alternatives for company locations extend, qualities for a location are newly revised and valued. This is basically not new, but the extent and the speed of this development differ a lot compared to the past. This process is called globalization. Consequently immobile regions have entered into competition for mobile economic players and mobile human capital. By means of five factors, which we assume to be relevant for selecting a company location, - regional network ability, market and customer orientation, innovation and human capital, infrastructure for transport and communication, "soft" location factors - the regionally relevant qualities for a location are investigated, illustrated by the role of the production orientated service industry, i.e. services which are necessary before or after and during production respectively. We expect them to have a major impact on the change of the economic structures and the rationalization as well as for the resulting increase of the value added. The processing industry and the production orientated service industry have a symbiotic relationship. Globalization meets very different economic and social structures in West and East Germany. Because of this difference we can expect different processes in adapting to these circumstances. The production orientated service industry frequently searches the local proximity to the processing branch of industry. As a result of the low presence of the processing industry in the region of Leipzig the demand for the production orientated service industry is missing here. In contrast an increasing demand for the service industry is expected in the region of Stuttgart. This assumption is also based on a further concentration on company core power and thus a specialization and rationalization respectively, especially for companies of the secondary sector granting that there is outsourcing potential. Town/region. The advantages of the suburban area around Leipzg such as regional common interests give a chance for further development and are more strongly perceived after a phase of an egoistic settlement policy in communities. The suburbanization in the region of Stuttgart has already lasted for some decades and met with existing settlement structures. The communities surrounding Stuttgart are suburban by definition. In fact they have mostly had an urban character for a long time. Thus the surrounding communities mostly differ from those of the suburban area in the region of Leipzig. Regional clusters. The claim of a global market power can offer chances but also risks. Besides a strategy for globalization there must be one for regionalization pursued at least of equal importance. Regional qualities for a location are revalued and upgraded despite or just because of globalization. Regional clusters will be competitive, if their goods and services achieved as a result of networks of research and development of various scientific disciplines are competitive according to the global standard - irrespective of the destination of demand. Requirements needed: - strengthening of the development planning - regional and flexible economic structure (cluster) - regional circulatory flows - building image by "soft" location factors - qualifying human capital within the region - regional and national cooperations - personal relationships between the regional players - set up of an efficient research and developmant strategy and performance of the results in the region The crucial point for the region of Leipzig is to implement the results of research and development into regional demand, especially by the processing industry, and into jobs of all levels of qualification. The focus for the region of Stuttgart lies in restructuring old industries according to the global demand and thus ensuring the economic clusters.

The thesis seeks to demonstrate that during the period between 1986 and 2006, some of the principal cities of the Spanish metropolitan system1, have undergone significant change in terms of their European competitiveness. It is suggested that in the case of Madrid and Barcelona in particular this change has been of such a magnitude to proportion them a much more important place within the European spatial configuration than that which they occupied in the mid-1980s. Empirical evidence is offered to support this conjecture. The thesis lies wholly within the framework of spatial planning at the European territorial scale.It charts the comparative ascent of the Spanish cities from the moment of Spain's entry into the European Union (EU) in 1986 against the background of the development of European spatial policy, increased economic integration across Europe, the increased importance of the 'territorial' dimension of EU cohesion policy and an eventual waning of the applicability of the terminology of 'core' and 'periphery' to describe European geographical location.Part One (Chapter 1) addresses the processes of urbanisation in general from a global perspective and then focuses on metropolitan growth in a number of different historical contexts from the start of the 19th Century. Parts Two (Chapters 2-5) and Three (Chapters 6-9) of the thesis carry out analyses at two contrasting but complementary spatial scales. Part Two examines the metropolitan growth processes in Spain, in the period since 1857, detecting the historical moments in which there were surges in the metropolitan populations of the seven cities of the metropolitan system. The dimensions of the spatial units of analysis corresponding to the seven Spanish metropolitan urban regions are described, based upon a methodology first developed by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in the context of a transnational spatial planning project of the INTERREG community initiative2. These seven spatial units form the basis for a socio-economic analysis of the structure of the metropolitan system, drawing upon data principally from the 2001 Census. If by 1930 one of the key characteristics of Spain's urban system was having not just one but two cities (Madrid and Barcelona) belonging to the group of 27 cities across the world with populations in excess of 1 million inhabitants3, this same differentiation between the country's two largest cities and the remainder of the urban system is equally valid today. Spain's urban system remains clearly bicephalous in being dominated by these same two cities in terms of demographic and economic strength.Part Three begins by examining the evolution of European spatial policy against the background of an ever-enlarging European Union and changes with regard to the notion of cohesion - from a concept understood in terms of economic and social factors, to one in which the territorial dimension has become increasingly important. The European urban system is then critically examined through a number of key and influential studies, with particular regard to the rankings and hierarchies of metropolitan urban regions deriving there from and the changes in the placing of the Spanish metropolitan urban regions therein.Taking inspiration from the seminal contribution of Manuel Castells4 in the context of the structural changes resulting from the informational and technological revolution, the thesis seeks to replicate the concept of a 'space of flows'. This is carried out through a 'network analysis' approach drawing upon air passenger flows between some 28 European metropolitan urban regions of the EU15+2 group of countries, enabling the analysis of the interaction between these 28 cities. This methodology enables arriving at a number of descriptive indicators which in turn, through the application of a multi-dimensional scaling mathematical technique, permits comparing the functional and physical distances of each of the metropolitan urban regions from the centre of the 'conceptual space of air passenger flows' and the centre of gravity. The resulting map of the functional positioning of the cities offers a spatial vision of metropolitan Europe quite different to that based upon Cartesian coordinates. Such an approach enables demonstrating that cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, Helsinki, Lisbon and Athens, traditionally considered as physically peripheral to the European core area, appear to be more favourably positioned in functional terms. Furthermore in the case of Spain the results indicate that Barcelona lies closer to the centre of the conceptual 'space of air passenger flows' than Madrid.In light of this empirical evidence, together with the signs of increased economic integration across some parts of Spain, the prospects of Spain forming part of a wider European territorial concentration of flows and activities, and the recognition of the territorial capital of Madrid and Barcelona within recent EU spatial policy declarations, the thesis concludes in Part Four that these two metropolitan regions have undergone a clear consolidation and (re)positioning within the European metropolitan hierarchy.