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The quest for the Femernbelt Region

WHAT and WHERE is the Femernbelt Region?

… and how does it matter?

Dirk Keil, Roskilde University, Institute for Society and Globalisation

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Contend

Background

Puzzle

Where is the Femernbelt Region?

What is the Femernbelt Region?

How does it matter?

One problem

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Signing of bilateral treaty regarding the Femernbelt Link in 2008: German Minister of Transport, Wolfgang Tiefensee and the Danish Minister of Transport, Carina Christensen

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2 overlapping projects

The common cross-border Femernbelt Region

The traffic axis Hamburg – Copenhagen/Malmö incl. the permanent Femernbelt link

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Hamburg Region Copenhage

n& Malmö

Transit-

region in-between

Hamburg Region

Copenhagen& Malmö

Femernbelt Region

(INTERREG programme

area)

Peripheral areas both sides the Femern Belt between HH & CPH/M

★ the fear: becoming a transit region only★ the target: becoming a growing destination-region by joining into a common cross-border region & by profiting from the future Femernbelt traffic axis

(bringing former periphery into a central position)★ the challenge: building this new common region

andachieving cross-border

regional cohesion

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The new region – centre of the axis

2020

Copenhagen& Malmö

Hamburg

Ferry

Central Europe Scandinavia

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THE PUZZLE …

?

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Illustration: Vilhelm Pedersen (1820-1859),fra H.C. Andersens "Eventyr og historier". Jubilæumsudgave for danske børn 1905.

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The new cross-border region

A socially constructed region

A new type of region

Only few common denominators

The region still remains abstract (many words but not much matter)

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Basic assumption

How to foster such a region and make it manifest?

It needs:

Cross-border cohesion

Tangibility

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Question

How do the regions key-actors operate and co-operate in order to achieve cross-border cohesion and tangibility for the new region?

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What region are we talking about?

WHAT and WHERE is the Femernbelt Region,

… and how does it matter?

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Question 1: The territory of the region

SMALL Femernbelt Region (INTERREG programme area)

…. a GREATER Femernbelt Region (incl. Hamburg area & Copenhagen/Malmö area)

… or even larger? (incl. South Sweden & North Germany)

WHERE is the Femernbelt Region?

Hamburg Region Copenhage

n & Malmö

Femernbelt Region

(INTERREG programme

area)

G r e a t e r F e m e r n b e l t R e g i o n

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… furthermore: overlapping regions

Hamburg Region Copenhage

n & Malmö

Femernbelt

Ø r e s u n d r e g i on

Schleswig-Holstein

Zealand Skåne

Fe m e r n b e l t R e g i o n I N T E R R E G

STR ING

… furthermore South Baltic programme area and Baltic Sea Region

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Question 2: The kind of region

Territorial region is problematic,therefore Region defined by function

Spaces of flow

Network region

How tangible is a functional region?

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Focus of my research study:

The SMALL Femernbelt Region:

a region in-between the metropolitan areas

a region mainly based on functions

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WHAT and WHERE is the Femernbelt Region,

… and how does it matter?

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Where is the key-actors focus?

One term applied to a variety of different concepts

courses confusion: one does not know what is meant

Term itself becomes

diffuse and obscure

devaluated

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Needed:

common understanding

Missing:

common understanding

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Finding out next:

How do the regions key-actors address this problem?

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Thank you for your attention.

Dirk Keil, PhD-FellowRoskilde University,Institute for Society and Globalisation

dirk@ruc.dk

Presentation – BeltScience, November 2011

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