Vision and creativity - challenge for city regions

From reading the policy documents of the various public bodies responsible for spatial planning (or town and country or regional planning), such as th e EC documents Europe 2000 or Europe 2000+, the European Spatial Developmen t Perspective (ESDP), or the German European Metropolitan Areas in Germany, it becomes clear that metropolitan areas or city regions are at the spatia l forefront of development perspectives. Here, as is well known, the most p ressing features of contemporary societies can be seen at the surface, but here too, these negative developments are paired with the hopes and glories of coming societies, in other words, European Metropoles become the engine s of change! A research project on cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, the la rgest region in Germany, highlights the context and future expectations for spatial development processes. As the title indicates, given the complex f ramework shaping spatial development on the one side, and the complex actor structures and expectations on the other, a strategic approach based on vi sion and creativity is needed in order to turn our city regions into agents of change. The core elements to achieve this are communication, learning, creative projects and new governance models. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.