RheinRuhr als polyzentrischer „Raum der Orte“ im „Raum der Ströme“

RheinRuhr as a polycentric ”space of places“ in a ”space of flows“. Concepts of polycentricity and networks take a central place in current thinking about the restructuring and revaluation of urban structures. This academic discourse will be sketched in view of the search for synergies within polycentric urban regions such as RhineRuhr. This notion of synergy, which suggests to make the whole network of cities more than the sum of its parts, will be discussed in the light of the urban region’s role as a node in the space of flows. This will be followed by some empirical results of the recently finished research project POLYNET. In an internationally comparative perspective, the functional polycentricity of RhineRuhr will be explored by taking on board some findings from social network analysis in order to measure the connectivity of some main cities at different spatial scales. At the end we will argue that the activation of the latent synergetic potentials within RhineRuhr should gain much more weight in strategic regional development debates than it is currently the case.