Political Institutionalisation and Economic Specialisation in Polycentric Metropolitan Regions – The Case of the East-German ‘Saxony Triangle’

The rising attention of politicians as well as scientists in the EU to the large urban agglomerations as centres of economic growth is accompanied by political efforts to identify and to demarcate such agglomerations under the label ‘metropolitan regions’. This study develops a theoretical framework broaching the issue of cooperation between municipalities from the perspective of regional economics as well as political science. The framework is applied to the empirical case of the polycentric metropolitan region ‘Saxony Triangle’ in East Germany. The results show that various intervening factors prevent intense cooperation between the actors in the region. Policy implications and con- clusions for future research are discussed.polycentric urban regions, metropolitan regions, saxony triangle, cooperation agglomeration, correspondence analysis

Competencies of firms, external knowledge sourcing and types of innovation in regions of Europe

Many innovation studies have been focusing on a narrow concept of innovation such as the generation of patents or new products. The performance of companies, however, often depends on innovation defined from a broader perspective. This includes process, organisational and market innovations as was pointed out already by Schumpeter. Drawing on the concept of knowledge bases and innovation networks we argue that these different types of innovation require both internal competencies, and technological and market knowledge from various kinds of external sources. These can be located at regional, national and international levels. In the present paper we are going to analyse evidence from eight European countries in this respect. Based on a multivariate model we are able to show that product, process and organisational innovations indeed rely on quite different types and sources of knowledge, and that in addition also the institutional characteristics of regions and countries matter.

Romantic Perception: A Kierkegaardian Re-formation of the Appearances via Existential Arrest Towards Conscious Imaginative Relation

The focus of this paper is to attempt to analyze how, in Kierkegaard\u27s paradigm of what constitutes a self , the representations of the phenomena change in the eyes of the perceiver from a state of no self - lacking this consciousness and active engagement of spirit-, to the moment of existential arrest, to a state of being a self - new and ever-growing consciousness as a result of this arrest. The primary source for this endeavour is Kierkegaard\u27s text, The Concept of Anxiety. Methodology for this endeavour will involve explication of the text itself with nuances from other post-enlightenment literature - ie: authors such as Dostoevsky, Kafka, and Camus. Part one will address a state of existence which Kierkegaard believes is a state lacking a self, focusing on the unconscious crisis of no self, and the resultant effect this has on one\u27s imaging of the world - a brief look at idolatry. Part two will focus primarily on that which ultimately brings on an existential arrest: anxiety - the challenge of death, imminent and living. Finally, part three will deal with self established through active consciousness, and how it enables one to re-form the appearances via dialectical tension within the awesome creative power of responsibility and relation - the freedom to act upon, and to suffer, the phenomena

Wege aus der europäischen Staatsschuldenkrise nach den Beschlüssen des Gipfels vom Juli 2011

Zahlungsbilanz, Zahlungsbilanzungleichgewicht, Schulden, Leistungsbilanz, Wettbewerb, Europäische Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion