Building 'Euro-regions' - Locational politics and the political geography of neoliberalism in post-unification Germany

Against the background of recent debates on state spatial restructuring in the European Union (EU), this article elaborates a critical geographical in terpretation of the contemporary debate on locational competitiveness (Stan dortdebatte) in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). On the one hand, the current debate on Standort Deutschland (Germany as an investment location) represents the growing instability of the 'Rhine model' of capitalism unde r conditions of accelerating globalization and European integration. In thi s aspect, the contemporary locational debate has served to justify various forms of deregulation and institutional erosion at each level within the Ge rman political system. On the other hand, the contemporary locational debat e has also entailed the delineation of new subnational geographical targets for major socio-economic policies. The protection and enhancement of natio nally specific competitive advantages within an integrated European economy is increasingly seen to hinge upon the construction of 'Euro-regions' asso ciated with territorially specific conditions of production, socio-economic assets and institutional forms at subnational scales. The politics of dere gulation in post-unification Germany have therefore been closely intertwine d with a broader reterritorialization and re-scaling of state power in whic h new subnational institutional spaces are being mobilized as the geographi cal spearheads for renewed economic growth. These arguments are illustrated with reference to two major realms of debate on locational competitiveness in the postunification era, each of which has entailed distinctive scalar articulation of neoliberal political agendas: the regionalization of nation al spatial planning policies (Raumordnungspolitik); and the debate on 'comp etition federalism' (Wettbewerbs-foderalismus) and fiscal equalization (Fin anzausgleich) among the German Lander. However, against essentializing inte rpretations of subnational regions as privileged geographical loci for neoc orporatist social compromises or for post-Fordist spatial fixes, contempora ry regionalization processes in the FRG are conceptualized here as an insti tutional medium through which the German state is engaging in strategies of crisis-management.