TY - CHAP A1 - Matern, Antje A1 - Schröder, Carolin A1 - Stevens, James Miller A1 - Weidner, Silke ED - Bisello, Adriano ED - Vettorato, Daniele ED - Laconte, Pierre ED - Costa, Simona T1 - Provincial but Smart-Urban-Rural Relationships in Brandenburg/Germany T2 - Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions N2 - While the idea of intelligent or smart cities started a vivid discussion and brought up a whole variety of strategies to transform urban areas into smart cities, the discussion about smart regions is less developed and rather vague. By looking into trends and strategies developed in the first implementation projects, one general lesson learned is that there is not just one approach to transforming regions into smart regions, but that innovation and smartness need to be related to their specific spatial, infrastructural and sociopolitical contexts (place-based approach). This contribution discusses existing concepts of Smart Regions and argues that peripheral regions may similarly become smart by implementing place-based approaches. In a first step, a short literature review on smart regions and challenges of the peripheral is presented. In a second step, new approaches in peripheral regions will be analyzed and discussed by providing and comparing four case studies from the Brandenburg region in Germany Y1 - 2018 SN - 978-3-319-75773-5 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75774-237 SP - 551 EP - 562 PB - Springer CY - Wiesbaden ER - TY - GEN A1 - Weidner, Silke A1 - Stevens, James Miller A1 - Maikämper, Moritz T1 - Provinzstadt - a definitive approach T2 - AESOP Annual Congress 2018, July 10-14 Gothenburg N2 - The paper aims to summarize the current debate on the term “Provinzstadt” in the German-language context, to introduce it to an international audience and to reflect on whether and where similarities and differences exist within Europe. “Provinz” brings with it various associations in German-speaking regions. Within the historical context political-administrative categories are definitive, while the origins of this city type are related to, among others, inheritance and geomorphological factors. Currently the once strictly negative connotation is beginning to take a positive turn. Although the growing metropolitan centers dominate the contemporary scientific and societal discussions, the “Provinzstädte” are increasingly gaining importance and attention (cf. Institut für Stadtplanung/ BTU 2017; Baumgart, Overhageböck, Rüdiger 2011; Bell, Jayne 2009; Hodos 2011; Schmidt-Lauber 2010). The analysis of the term’s etymology and interpretation comprise the first part of the paper and the basis for the subsequent examination of this city type. Methodologically five selected case studies will be analyzed and relevant qualitative characteristics deduced. Several hypotheses will then be developed to be discussed among the session participants. Spatial-structural and -ordering, functional and life-world characteristics of the selected “Provinzstädte” will be examined and discussed. In addition to demographic characteristics also qualitative factors such as regional location, centrality, function, historical development of increased significance, urban structure etc. will be introduced. The discourse on “Provinzstädte” will be placed in relation to further discussions with primarily qualitative approaches that are used in part within the German context but also internationally, e.g. Global City, Regiopole, “Schwarmstadt” etc. Y1 - 2018 SP - 498 CY - Gothenburg ER -