ABSTRACT

This paper explores the gaps between two geographic rationales in region-building: territorially defined, bounded sub-units of the state and relationally defined spatial backdrops to functional and actor networks. The latter are driven by urban/metropolitan agency aimed at international competitiveness, often resulting in self-selecting entities that peripheralize those places that are not attractive to the network. The paper questions the legitimacy of this understanding of “region” and its tensions with established territories of formal democratic representation. While efforts to adjust both rationales must confront the rapidity of changes, large cities may adopt the role of interlocutors between the two geographies, as they are both the driving force behind relational network-building and the key nodes of conventional state territories. Their efforts to integrate the rationales of urban competitiveness and collective cohesiveness are examined for the case of the Danish-Swedish Øresund functional region, as it straddles two state territories and their formal divisions.

摘要

本文探讨了区域构建中的两个地理学原理之间的差距：地域定义的，州的有界子单元以及功能和参与者网络的相关定义的空间背景。后者是由旨在提高国际竞争力的城市/大都市机构驱动的，通常会导致自我选择的实体将那些对网络没有吸引力的地方外围化。本文对这种对“地区”的理解的合法性及其与正式民主代表制的既定领土之间的紧张关系提出了质疑。虽然调整这两种基本原理的努力必须面对变化的迅速性，但大城市可能会在这两个地区之间扮演对话者的角色，因为它们既是关系网络建设的推动力，又是传统国家领土的关键节点。