Borders in Metropolitan Development: The Case of Vienna

Rudolf Giffinger and Alexander Hamedinger

Journal of Borderlands Studies, 2013, vol. 28, issue 2, 205-219

Abstract: For almost two decades, Vienna, Austria's capital city, has been coping with the processes of metropolitanization on the urban-regional level. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, these processes are basically related to the changing meaning of borders and the repositioning of Vienna within Central Europe. Not surprisingly, specific different strategic initiatives have been developed to meet the challenges of cross-border metropolitan development. However, the positive or negative influence of these initiatives on metropolitan development remains unclear without the definition of assessment criteria. To describe and assess relevant initiatives, two specific elements of the concept of territorial capital, cooperative efforts and relational capital, are systematically examined in this paper. The meaning of borders, which are conceptualized as multilayered social constructs, in both theoretical elements is especially taken into account. Cooperative efforts are assessed by focusing on two different aspects: the tangible assets in the form of infrastructure projects or joint activities in businesses (i.e. addressing the economic, physical and partly social layer/dimension of borders) and the intangible assets in the form of collective competencies and trust (i.e. social, cultural, identity layer/dimension of borders).Thus, questions regarding the metropolitan development of Vienna are addressed by theoretically examining the basis of the concept of territorial capital and by taking empirical evidence into account. Finally, some more general conclusions concerning cooperative strategic efforts in the context of cross-border development and the role of the multilayered meaning of borders in shaping these efforts are discussed.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2013.854655

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