Paper Titles & Abstracts

In the Western Baltic Sea Area various forms of spatial co-operation have developed during the recent decades. Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden, respectively the metropolitan and city regions of Hamburg, Aalborg, Öresund and Oslo, are linked to each other by two major axes of networking, the Jütland-axis in the west and the area alongside the Fehmarnbelt-crossing in the east, both experimenting with informal governance structures. In consequence, a complex system of multi-level governance has been created. The paper describes the existing structures, analyses them according to a set of criteria including motivations for starting the co-operation, actor-constellations and institutional aspects, role of existing boundaries and formal and informal processes of spatial planning as well as relationship of functional and relational geographies. As theoretical framework the concept of “soft spaces” is used and the paper reflects in how far the new soft spaces contribute to spatial development, how they fit into the political-administrative framework and structures, how they cope with conflicting actor interests, and how they are democratically legitimized.