Regional sustainable development and the information society in Europe

This paper wants to put regional sustainable development in the perspective of evolutionary regional systems development related to the Information Society (IS) in Europe. It deals with the challenge of change from an industrial to an information society. At the moment we have the opportunity to shape so-called "new" or "information based" economies during their emergence so that they simultaneously foster environmental objectives. Examples for such economies are from all branches: agriculture, manufacturing, trade, high-tech, and entertainment. Their contribution to regional sustainability can be shaped within wide ranges in their present phase of development. But the precondition for influencing the environmental behavior of these economies depends on the regional creativity to get them started, modified, formed, and put into a compatible regional framework. One approach on the local or regional level is the idea of a "learning region". Here regional science can benefit from manifold contributions from different areas of science, such as the learning organisation by P. Senge, the milieu debate (about innovative or creative milieus) by GREMI, the method of Cross Catalytical Networks (CCNs) and other areas. These ideas are made applicable by using 25 key issues which are preconditions for the creative evolutionary future of a region. In our paper we will report the background and application of a new aproach for regional science and management to build a cooperation between regional sustainability and the emerging information society. This includes a report on case studies for successful regional development in the IS at the local level in several regions.