Knowledge-intensive firms, connectivity and spatial restructuring: dynamics and differences in Germany and Switzerland

该项目是德国和瑞士在牵头机构进程框架内开展的一个跨界研究项目。迈向知识经济的结构变革已成为区域发展的重要驱动力。这就提出了一个问题，即金融危机是否已经或继续通过知识密集型企业地点网络的重新配置对德国和瑞士的区域发展产生影响，如果是，又是如何产生影响的。全球金融和经济危机加速了向知识经济的结构性转变和商业价值链的日益全球化，这是否导致大都市地区的企业重新集中？或者，这些进程是否会导致分散化或将活动转移到外围地点，以降低成本并利用新的知识和价值链？本项目的主要目标是在全球经济最近发生经济变化的背景下，研究德国和瑞士城市职能等级的变化。该项目的科学创新特别关注对全球化及其对城市和区域发展动态的影响的理解，重点是知识经济。该项目的总体目标如下：（1）确定德国和瑞士在最近的金融和经济危机之后在连通性和城市功能等级演变方面的异同;（二）加深对全球化的理解，全球化是企业价值链空间组织变化的关键因素，从而影响城市系统，德国和瑞士;（3）提供关于实际可达性和非实际连通性之间以及知识经济中流量和存量之间相互关系的证据;（4）绘制和直观显示德国和瑞士城市连通性的动态和城市功能等级的演变;（5）为在德国和瑞士进行的具有连通性数据的长期小组调查制定概念;（6）制定基于证据的替代观点，为德国和瑞士的区域和城市政策制定提供坚实的基础。

The project is a cross-border research project between Germany and Switzerland within the framework of the Lead Agency process. The structural change towards a knowledge economy has become an important driver in regional development. This poses the question as to whether the financial crisis had or continues to have impact upon regional development in Germany and Switzerland through the reconfiguration of the location networks of knowledge-intensive enterprises, and if so, how. Has the structural change towards a knowledge economy and the increasing globalisation of commercial value chains, accelerated by the financial and economic crisis worldwide, led to a re-concentration of businesses locating in metropolitan areas? Or are these processes leading to a de-concentration or to activities being relocated to peripheral locations in order to lower costs and to tap into new knowledge and value chains? The main objective of this project is to examine the change of the functional urban hierarchy in Germany and Switzerland in the context of the recent economic changes in the global economy. The scientific innovation of the project in particular concerns the understanding of globalisation and its consequences for the dynamics of urban and regional development, focussing on the knowledge economy. The overall ambition of the project can be described as follows: (1) To identify similarities and differences in the evolution of connectivity and functional urban hierarchy for Germany and Switzerland in the wake of the recent financial and economic crisis; (2) To enrich the understanding of globalisation as key factor of change in the spatial organisation of value chains of firms that as a consequence affects the urban system in Germany and Switzerland; (3) To provide evidence on the interrelationship between physical accessibility and non-physical connectivity as well as between flows and stocks in the knowledge economy; (4) To map and visualize the dynamics of urban connectivity and the evolution of the functional urban hierarchy in Germany and Switzerland; (5) To develop a concept for a long-term panel survey with connectivity data in Germany and Switzerland; (6) To develop evidence-based, alternative perspectives, which can provide a robust basis for regional and urban policy making in Germany and Switzerland.