German

This Territorial Science Echo highlights essential facets of governance that may prove relevant for the future development of the Greater Region. In particular, it shows how thematic cooperation and conflicts contribute to the establishment of governance structures. The paper deals with the topics of governance in general, participation and housing as well as the external relations of the Greater Region, formulates essential challenges and recommendations, and is thus to be understood as a suggestion in the professional discourse for the further design of the spatial development concept of the Greater Region.

The paper presents a practice-sociological approach to the description and analysis of cross-border cooperation. For this purpose, the development of cooperation research, its characteristic orientations as well as the fundamentals of practical theoretical thinking will be outlined. Based on this, the heuristic figure of thought of cross-border practice formation is developed, which breaks with the premises of conventional cooperation research. It will be further differentiated on the basis of four challenges of cross-border cooperation, in order to arrive at an alternative perspective on cross-border cooperation. The following is an outlook, which deals with the research-specific features of the approach presented, with a view to a future practice-sociological and multidisciplinary cooperation research.

The working paper examines the theme of energy and addresses the challenges of spatial development in the Greater Region. It addresses the concept of energy system transformation and focuses on energy systems and carriers, in particular the expansion of wind energy and biomass energy production in relation to  the development of nuclear fossil energy sources in Germany and France.

The working paper examines the themes of employment and economic development and addresses the challenges of spatial development in the Greater Region. It focuses in particular on industrial history, employment and cross-border work in the Greater Region.

The working paper examines the theme of mobility and transport and addresses the challenges of spatial development in the Greater Region. It focuses in particular on the territorial distribution of cross-border worker flows and their dependence on the car within the Greater Region, as well as on the influence of European policy on the challenges of cross-border transport.

The working paper examines the theme of demography and migration and addresses the challenges of spatial development in the Greater Region. It focuses in particular on cross-border residential mobility on the borders of the Grand Duchy, the ageing population and the protection of health services in rural areas.

Small countries with significant labor needs, Luxembourg and Switzerland both attract a large number of cross-border workers. To compare the two, the 19 authors contributing to this thematic issue analyzed the situation of border workers in the main cross-border employment areas (Luxembourg, Basel, Geneva), and also in Ticino. In considering the contextual and methodological elements the geographers, economists, sociologists and political scientists focus on employment issues, the cross-border everyday life and society’s perception of cross-border workers. This collective, mulitdisplinary approach is summarized by the editors who went on to identify the challenges shared equally by Luxembourg and Switzerland.

The Greater Region belongs to the most important regions in the European Union in terms of cross-border cooperation. After a start in the 70ies the cooperation in the field of spatial planning arose to an important pillar of cooperation. However, concrete evidence on the high relevance of cross-border spatial planning is scarce. This issue is mostly picked up in relation to the legal and institutional framework. This strategic paper on hand calls for cross-border spatial planning resulting from planning practices that aim at sustainably take into account the societal needs in space besides law, plans and concepts. After a short presentation of the most decisive milestones of cooperation in the field of cross-border spatial planning in the Greater Region, the strategic paper presents the results of an experimental workshop (planning game) that was conducted in 2017 and involved researchers as well as planning practitioners. At the end, several recommendations are presented which are based on the analysis of the research material.