The Regional Studies Association Research Network on Bridging Governance Gaps in City-regions Addressing Land Take and City-Region Building through Comparative Research
Policy goals of social-ecological transformation and sustainability place a strong focus on cities (like SDG 11). A most representative indicator of these policy goals, land take, highlights a shortfall when not addressing city-regional functional interdependencies: land take is not limited to core cities but results to a much greater extent from social and economic dynamics in the functional urban region, including peripheral areas. The policy and planning ambition of no-net-land take-take will therefore be decided on the city-regional scale. However, many urban actors encounter institutional and imaginative hurdles when perceiving and shaping city-regions as one space for action.
Against this background, the proposed network has two objectives: (1) challenges and solutions are developed at the intersection of the research on city-regional governance and land take as well as for the intersection of the research fields of city-regional imagination and city-region building; and (2) methodological innovations for comparative city-region research will be developed.
Future Events
CS04. Beyond Fragmentation: New Institutions and Strategies for Urban–Rural Linkages
2026 RSA Annual Conference Special Session
15-18 June 2026, Gothenburg, Sweden
Organisation: Lukas Haefner (University of Kassel, Germany), Simin Yan (Chongqing University, China) and Alois Humer, (TU Wien, Austria).
Roundtable: Rethinking City-Regional Planning: Perspectives on Land Take, Planning Cultures, and Education
6th World Planning Schools Congress (WPSC)
29 June – 3 July 2026, Helsinki-Espoo.
Organisation: Anna Growe (Kassel University, Germany) and Chen Chen (Tongji University, China).
Past Events
Kick-off event: Special Session CS2: Governance and Imaginaries of Sustainable City Regions
RSA Regional Futures Conference, London
13–14 Nov 2025
Session Organisers:
Anna Growe, Kassel University, Germany
Eva Purkarthofer, Aalto University, Finland
This session explores a research triangle:
➡️ Identifying city-regions as functionally integrated spaces
➡️ Governance & planning for sustainable land use strategies
➡️ Imaginaries of city-regions as political–planning spaces for action
Session Highlights:
Session 1 – Governance and Imaginaries (5 papers, 16 contributors)
Session 2 – Net Land Take & Urban–Rural Interrelations (5 papers, 6 contributors)
Altogether, 10 contributions by 22 scholars worldwide! Welcome to join and connect with our Research Network.
🔗 More details can be found here
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