Setting the course for future diversification: the development of a regional transformation strategy in a German lignite mining region

Regions throughout the world are confronted with the challenge of restructuring their economies when existing growth paths decline. In regional strategies, directions are defined into which their economies shall be developed, thereby constituting a crucial moment for setting the course for future diversification. While considerable progress has been made in retrospectively understanding regional industrial path developments once these have emerged successfully, little attention has been paid to the processes by which regions develop strategies for future diversification. This article argues that in order to understand why a region aims to develop certain economic areas rather than others, this has to be seen in the context of the policymaking process. Based on a case study of the German lignite mining region ‘Rheinisches Revier’, the paper explores the role played by the configuration of regional policymaking processes, in which regions develop strategies, for the direction of these strategies. The findings highlight that regional strategies have to be understood as the product of a region-specific multi-actor process whose configuration affects the policy outcomes.