Professor of urban studies

With an academic background in urban and economic geography and spatial planning, my research interests so far have been clustered in, or combine, three different scientific angles: cities and regions, economic networks and flows, and metropolitan governance, policy and planning. In this context, I studied subjects as variegated as suburban lifecycles, enclave economic spaces, the spatialisation of logistics in hubs or gateways, and policies pursuing sustainable spatial development. One thread that has been on the agenda for some time now is the relationship between spaces (cities) and flows (people, commodities, money, ideas) – as approached in material, conceptual and also in more metaphorical terms.

More recently, this research trajectory became expanded and further developed into three different directions:

Firstly, I study the myth of urban ontology and epistemology, such as in the case of the ‘metropolitan’ upgrading of city regions, with the current hype of so-called megaregions, as well as with the use of density as a persistent planning paradigm. Secondly, the communicative construction of space has raised my interest, with respect to political projects such as ‘urban renaissance’, boosterism and ‘policy boosterism’ in regional development, or concerning how globalisation is being perceived at the urban level. Thirdly, policy and planning are being explored, particularly given the need to overcome the old, technocratic planning ideal and to seek new ground with urban experiments, communities of practice and the like.

Issues that I started to explore recently include i) an understanding of cities asrelational, subject of a comparative study of the internationalization and political economy of cities such as Luxembourg, Geneva (Switzerland) and Singapore (the GLOBAL-project); ii) a study of the science-policy interface in geography and planning, which sheds some critical light on the promises and limits of co-production among various actors; and iii) the application of an evolutionary understanding of urban areas (such as suburbs), in order to better understand trajectories of change and related ideas for development.

A series of small commentaries that I was invited to publish in the 2015-volume of disP – The Planning Reviewincluded issues such as ‘The NewishCity’, ‘The Science-Policy Interface’, ‘Transdisciplinarity’ and ‘Language’. These commentaries can be read as somehow summarizing my style of thought. See http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rdsp20.

In terms of methods and methodology, both standardised and particularly non-standardised research methods are applied in my work, where expert interviews, focus groups and discourse analyses (in the Foucaultian tradition) have played an important role. I am also concerned with communicative practices in research (e.g. discourses) and academia (e.g. speaking to an audience, writing), and with language as a catalyst for international communities to emerge, and as a primer of competition. Both have a major impact on research and practice.

Recent updates on my activities can be found on the related subsections of this page. Current news are also posted on our Blog http://urbanunbound.blogspot.lu/. This Blog, which I am running with my fellow colleague Constance Carr, initially emerged from the SUSTAIN_GOV research project. Installing the Blog was actually suggested by a proposal referee who pointed at social media as a proper means of disseminating research findings. Meanwhile, I am also present on twitter (@markushesse60), for spreading news, observations and links to larger works that are published in papers, book chapters, or on the Blog. While I still believe there is good reason to be cautious against any overflow of communicative means and measures, snippets of news sometimes helps bringing the right information to the right people.

Last updated on: Montag, den 03. Juni 2019

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Current Position

• Since 1 July 2008: Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Luxembourg

Education

• 1978: Abitur, High School Laurentianum, Arnsberg/Westfalen
• 1978-1979: Study of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Dortmund
• 1979-1985:Study of Geography, Westfälische Wilhelms-University Münster

Degrees

• 03.06.1985: Diploma in Geography, University of Münster
• 14.10.1997: Dr. rer. pol. (Ph.D) in Spatial Planning, University of Dortmund /Faculty of Spatial Planning: ‘Commercial transport, urban development and political regulation’ (Summa cum laude)
• 11.02.2004: Post-Doc (Habilitation) in Human Geography, Freie Universität Berlin/Faculty of Geosciences; Scientific report: ‘Freight transport and logistics in the process of urbanization’
• 18.02.2004: Venia legendi ‘Human Geography’, Freie Universität Berlin/Faculty of Geosciences

Professional Experience

• 1985: Free Lance Researcher at ‘Ecology and Planning’/ Grohs and Preißmann Landscape Architects, Essen
• 1/1986-9/1987: Civil Service at the State Office for the Environment North Rhine-Westfalia, Düsseldorf
• 1987/88-1998: Researcher/Senior Researcher at the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Berlin
• 1998-99/2003-04: Senior Researcher at the IRS/Leibniz-Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning, Erkner near Berlin
• 2000-2003: Postdoctoral research at the Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Geographical Sciences, funded by the German Research Organisation (DFG)
• 2001: Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley, Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS)/UC Transportation-Center
• 2004-2008: Private Lecturer and Assistant Professor (C2) at the Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Geographical Sciences

Memberships

• Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of “The Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR)”, 2010-2012
• Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the ILS – Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Dortmund
• Board Member of “The Benelux Interuniversity Association of Transport Researchers (BIVEC-GIBET)”
• Regular member of the German Academy of Spatial Research and Planning (ARL); also appointed member of the ARL-‘Grundsatzkommission’
• Association of Geographers at German Universities (VDGH); German Society for Geography (DGfG), working groups on Urban Geography, North America, Transport Geography; Association of American Geographers (AAG); Royal Geographic Society/Institute of British Geographers (RGS/IBG); Commission „Monitoring Cities of Tomorrow” of the International Geographical Union (IGU); Gesellschaft für Stadtgeschichte und Urbanisierungsforschung (GSU); Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR)/Regional Science Association (RSA); Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin (GfE); Association of Ecological Economics Research (VÖW); “The Cosmobilities Network”, Munich/Lancaster

Editorial Functions

• Editor of the Book Series “Transport, Mobilities and Spatial Change”, with Edward Elgar Publishers, Cheltenham, UK (jointly with Prof. em. Richard D. Knowles, University of Salford, UK)
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of “Transport Geography”
• Member of the Editorial Board of 'European Spatial Research and Policy'
• Member of the Editorial Board of ‘Transactions of Aesop/Association of European Schools of Planning'

Referee

Progress in Human Geography; Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers; Annals of the Association of American Geographers (AAG); Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society; Die Erde; Environment and Planning A; Economic Geography; Geographica Helvetica; Geographische Zeitschrift (GZ); Geojournal; Growth & Change; International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR); Journal of Economic and Social Geography (TESG); Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning; Journal of Urbanism; Journal of Transport Geography; Journal of Transport History; Maritime Policy & Management; Professional Geographer; Raumforschung und Raumordnung (RuR); Regional Studies; Research in Transportation Business & Management; Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft; Sustainability; Transport Policy; Transport Reviews; Urban Geography; Urban Studies; Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie, Canadian Journal of Urban Research, Cities, Comparative Population Studies, Development Southern Africa, disP, European Planning Studies, The Geographical Journal, Geography Compass, Global Networks, International Planning Studies, Journal of Planning Literature, Planning Practice & Research

Various universities in Germany, the UK and the United States

Academy of Finland

Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

DAAD, Germany

DFG, Germany

Hans-Böckler-Foundation, Germany

National Geographic Society, U.S.A.

Volvo Research and Education Foundations

Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (WGL), Germany

Last updated on: 26 Okt 2020

1) “GLOBAL: Relational cities and enclave urbanism in the 'Singapores of the West'. How niche-sovereignty strategies and political economy help minor metropolises to globalise. The cases of Geneva (CH) and Luxembourg (L)”

This project is funded by the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), Luxembourg, and commenced in May 2016. GLOBAL complements previous research undertaken in the domains of sustainable development in general and regional governance in particular (see the research projects SUSTAINLUX and SUSTAIN_GOV), and it adds to our research trajectory on the link between city-regions and flows. These flows include not only material flows, but also the circulation of money or political ideas, and it specifically aims to link concepts of relational cities with a new understanding of how urban space is organised and governed.

The project addresses three main issues. First, the research deals with the increasing degree of global integration of local places, an integration that is not related to their economic or population size but which is an outcome of their specialisation and the politics of niche-sovereignty. This will be done by drawing on the idea of relational cities and the example of three cities: Luxembourg, Geneva and Singapore. Second, the project emphasises the urban-regional implications of the integration of these cities into global processes, with particular attention being paid to the emergence of specialised locales that are rather distinct and, in locational terms, separated from others. Here, it is the concept of enclave urbanism that will be mobilised to frame the development and implications of actually existing enclaves in the three relational cities investigated. And third, the project will interrogate the links between the macro-scale notion of the relational city and the meso-level concept of enclave urbanism by exploring how both of these imply similar governance attitudes and practices. This is being done by juxtaposing the traditions, beliefs and dilemmas of the key actors involved in both the original development of the case study cities as relational and of those responsible for the generation of enclave urbanism.

By investigating three enclave spaces in each of the three relational cities, the project will both strengthen the central concepts, develop a theoretical link between them on the basis of governance practices and generate insights on the three cities and their urban systems. In so doing, it will also contribute to detect both the “other” in globalisation, which is its local or regional imprint, and also the processes and dynamics that are going on “out there”, and study the manifold forms in which these two are linked together.

Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Markus Hesse (markus.hesse@uni.lu); Post-doc research collaborator: Dr. Catherine Wong (catherine.wong@uni.lu)

2) “Contemporary Suburbs – from ‘slum speak’ to life-cycle approaches” 

The research deals with spatial inequality, growth and decline in the case of suburban areas, in the first instance in the U.S., but also in Western Europe. Starting point was the observation that a substantial proportion of older, inner-ring suburbs in North American metropolitan areas now suffer from degradation and decay, as inner cities did before. Given most recent developments on the real estate market, even newer sub- and exurban areas have experienced abrupt decline, due to imploding “subprime” mortgages and the effects of related foreclosures. Against this background, my research explored the Stockton Metropolitan Area in Northern California as a case study. (Stockton was one of the places most severely hit by the credit crunch nationwide and reveals both structural adaptation and more acute, abrupt changes). The findings of the case study are discussed in the context of cycles of urban change and the need for regenerating suburban areas as a core component of the North American city. A scientific paper had been published in the Geographische Zeitschrift (GZ) 99, 2008 (effectively appeared in 2010).

A related extension of the project was undertaken in order to explore Western European, notably German cases facing comparable problems due to life-cycle changes – while being aware that they are considered completely different in terms of socioeconomic framework conditions, urban setting and governance or regulation. The project was commissioned by the Federal Research Institute of Building, Urban and Spatial Research (BBSR), Bonn, and jointly conducted with Professor Christa Reicher from the Technical University of Dortmund and her staff members. The full report was published online on behalf of the BBSR and also as a book by Asso-Publishers, Oberhausen, Germany. A recent summary of the findings appeared in German in the paper “Suburbia – quo vadis”, co-authored by M. Hesse, I. Mecklenbrauck, J. Polivka and C. Reicher, inInformationen zur Raumentwicklung3.2016, pp. 533-545.

3) “Observatoire  Belval” (emerging, see more information HERE , German readers see HERE )

4) Book “Cities, regions and flows” (Peter V. Hall/Markus Hesse, eds., Routledge Publishers, Oxford 2012)

Urban regions have always been significant nodes for organizing the exchange of goods, services and information. Cities have also acted as gateways for providing commodities and services to more distant hinterlands. However, the ability of cities to concentrate services and facilities – once a key factor of urbanization – has been subject to change. This is, first, a consequence of the shift from a rather place-bound economic system towards a strongly flow-oriented network economy, which evolved against the background of new technologies and globalization. Second, increasingly diversified patterns of urbanization have contributed to the emergence of metropolitan city-regions and also to a repositioning of cities in the urban system. Operating at both the inter- and intra-urban scales, together these changes suggest that the heightened flows act both as integrative and disintegrative forces shaping cities. Driving and responding to such changes, new logistics concepts and practices have been developed, connecting the interrelated but often dispersed locales of production and consumption.

Yet the fundamental role of physical flows, networks and chains in city-formation has long been overlooked by researchers. More recently, interest in these issues has increased, emphasising port development, linkages between world cities and air travel, and the changing geographies of freight distribution. This literature too emphasises the twin processes of integration and disintegration that result from goods movement within and through urban space. “Cities, regions and flows” ties these debates together in a single volume and presents a theoretical framework for understanding the changing relationship between places and movement, and thoughtfully prepared case studies from different continents on how cities manage to become part of value chains and how they ensure accessibility in an increasingly contested policy environment. Moreover, it will be discussed how urban policies attempt to solve related conflicts in terms of infrastructure provision, land use, local labour markets and environmental sustainability.

Book link                     Book review links

5) Focal firms and grand coalitions as global city makers: globalisation vs. new localism in Hamburg’s maritime network

Port cities and port institutions are traditionally viewed as core agents of globalization. In this respect, the case of Hamburg, Germany, is characterized by a strong sense of local players for global issues, trying to generate local benefits as much as possible. However, related policies have come under increasing pressure of global competition. Maritime services tend to be increasingly fluid, de-coupling their traditional links to the mainport. As a paradigmatic case in this respect, the “Albert Ballin Konsortium” is being investigated further. The Konsortium was founded by the city, banks, insurances and private investors in 2008, in order to ensure local stakes in theHapag-Lloydshipping line and to avoid its takeover by a global competitor. For this purpose, the city invested more than €1bn Euros of public money in 2008 and 2012, claiming that the shipping line would be essential for Hamburg’s maritime cluster and thus require local control. Such attempts however appear rather limited, given the overarching topology of the maritime services networks. Against this background the research discusses local frames of globalization and the extent and legitimacy of state intervention.

This research adds to my participation in the OECD’s Port-Cities Programme and evolved from the case study on port and city of Hamburg, Germany. A recent post on our blog provides interested readers with more information and also a link to the OECD-Programme and related documents.    

Last updated on: 24 Okt 2016

Urban studies at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning started as an endeavor closely linked to the City of Luxembourg back in 2008, whose representatives had then decided to fund the chair for the duration of five years. As a consequence, problems and research questions related to spatial development in Luxembourg, the Grand Duchy and the Greater Region played a certain role in our work. Moreover, the cities of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette and the Nordstad, altogether with the Ministries of Economics, Housing, and Sustainable Development and the University co-financed the National Information Unit for Urban Policy (Cellule nationale d’Information pour la Politique Urbaine – CIPU). The cell was established in 2008/09 and operated as a science-policy interface until the end of 2013. We decided to terminate our involvement in the cell for various reasons, most notably diverging expectations as to the range of problems to be addressed, and also different understandings of how a productive science-policy interface could be filled with substance from both sides.

The associated problems have unfolded against the background of structural properties and dilemmas faced by a small state under massive growth pressure, where planning is a rather recent domain and open debates about the country’s future are difficult to trigger, to say the least. Media and publishing activities undertaken so far are numerous (see our contributions to Luxemburger Wort, Lëtzebuerger Land, and forum) yet remain at an unusually high level of lack of resonance from institutions in charge. While our work continues to be committed to scientific quality measured by international standards and relevance for the country simultaneously, the ambition to fertilize practice turns out to be a real challenge under such circumstances. However, in conceptual and analytical terms, the country and its capital city offer a rather unique case of a micro-metropolis that is small but globally embedded and difficult to steer – an inspiring environment for urban studies (see the GLOBAL project). Also, the delicate relationship between research and practice, academia and local institutions remains central for us, not least in terms of higher education and research policy. So we continue to reflect upon these environments, habits and practices (see my commentary on Luxembourg’s HE-policy in the forum, or the recent article on participative urban planning in ons stad, both in German). Further research projects and activities in the regional or national realm are focused on the real estate market and housing policies, the issue of identity in spatial regards (see the outcomes of the IDENT2-project), and also the ongoing development of UL’s new campus in Belval, particularly the significance of the Cité des Sciences for regional development (see below).

Particular involvement in Luxembourgish planning processes included and still includes participation in the following events and functions:

• International jury for the urban redevelopment “Op de Schmelz”, Dudelange (Fonds du Logement),
• “Jessica” urban development funds for the Nordstad (European Investment Bank),
• Expert group for “Midfield”, Luxembourg/Hesperange (DATer),
• Mid-term evaluation “Cité des Sciences”, Belval (Fonds Belval),
• Membership in the expert-advisory council for the Luxembourg Centre for Architecture (LUCA),
• Membership in the Higher Council of Spatial Planning (CSAT) of the Luxembourg national government.

On the territories of the municipalities of Esch-sur-Alzette and Sanem in the south of Luxembourg, right at the French border, the new campus of the UL is going to be developed. The place of the new campus in Belval is a former industrial site once used by ARBED, the Luxembourg steel group founded in 1911 (which is now part of ArcelorMittal). By the end of the 1990s, a surface area of 120 hectares was opened up for new development purposes. Based on a masterplan sketched by Jo Coenen Architects, Maastricht, the developer Agora and the public Fonds Belval are about to realize the new urban quarter, comprising office and retail buildings (of which the red, landmark Dexia-building and the Belval-Plaza shopping mall are already in use), apartment houses and also the 25 hectares large Cité des Sciences. It hosts the future research campus for the UL (whose Faculty of Humanities and Central Admin moved there already in Fall 2015) and other non-university research institutions. It is expected that about 7,000 students and 3,000 teachers and researchers will once occupy the Cité des Sciences.

Given the tremendous importance of this project, with its amount of investment – about 1 billion Euros – easily meeting the magnitude of a large-scale urban project, the Geography and Spatial Planning Research Centre of the UL had established a “Belval Observatory  / Observatoire Belval” – a both virtual and material platform for tracing the progress of the new research campus and, particularly, the ways it is becoming reality: in terms of campus life, integration into the urban area, estimating regional impact. Our aim was not only to track empirical evidence of the development and, in particular, the urban and regional significance of Belval. Moreover, the Belval Observatory was also thought of as a laboratory that provides for knowledge from other cases of science cities, research parks, university towns etc., in order to develop a research framework on how knowledge is being placed on urban territory. Further activities in the context of the observatory are yet to be decided.

Last updated on: 01 Aug 2017

• “Global infrastructure, local alliances: a seaport at crossroads”, on 24th March 2023 at the Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), in Denver, CO (USA), (virtual)
• “Die Urbanisierung des Plateau Kirchberg, Luxemburg: Umbau einer Bürostadt der 1960er Jahre”, on 13th February 2023 at the 2023 Dortmund Conference for Spatial Planning, in Dortmund, Germany
• “The age of progress 1960-1975: Luxembourg and Plateau Kirchberg”, on 7th October 2022 at the International Conference “Spatial Planning and Research in Europa 1945-1975”, in Berlin, Germany
• “The politics of property: A discourse analysis of science-policy interaction in Luxembourg”, on 26th July at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the IGU-Urban Commission, in Paris, France
• “Temporäre Formate im grenzüberschreitenden Kontext: Beobachtungen aus dem Franco-Luxemburgischen Terrain“, on 1st June 2022 at the International Conference on Cross-Border Cooperation of the French Embassy in Germany, in Berlin, Germany
• “A global knowledge-enclave situated on cross-border territory: tracing the CERN as a dispositif of multi-scalar, relational urbanisation”, on 20th November 2021 at the 19th Swiss Geoscience-Meeting, together with Charlotte Schaeben, ETH Zurich (virtual)
• “The governmentality of urban resilience – Buying a neoliberal pig in a poke?”, on 24th August 2021 at the 2021 Annual Conference of the IGU Urban Commission (virtual)
• “Nachbarschaftsfragen. Perspektiven und Probleme grenzüberschreitender Raumplanung im Franco-Luxemburgischen Terrain”, on 17th May 2021 at the Conference “neuRAUMdenken” of RTHW Aachen and Region Aachen (virtual)
• “The urban geography of Luxembourg’s financial centre: Open the fortress! When financial centre and urban development collide …”, on 4th May 2021 in the context of the FINGEO-Seminar Series (virtual)
• “The politics of circulation. Corporate geography, logistics, and the power play of Amazon.com”, at the Workshop ‘Logistical Power’ at the Technical University of Munich, on the 27th November 2020 (online)
• “Relational cities as ‘city-state formations’: challenges for policy & planning”, at the 18th Swiss Geoscience-Meeting at ETH Zurich, on the 7th November 2020 (online)
• “Housing (in) the relational city: nodes of global value chains, hot-spots of local conflict”, presented online at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the IGU-Urban Commission, on the 24th of August 2020
• “Relational city-state formation, Plateau Kirchberg and the challenge of urbanizing a 1960s services enclave”, at the 4th meeting of the DFG-Network ‘Spaces of Global Production’, on the 31st January 2020, in Esch/Belval (Luxembourg)
• “Urban expansion re-visted”. Invited keynote to the 2019-PT Conference “Große Quartiere – Stadt wieder in großem Maßstab planen”, on 3^rd December 2019 in Aachen, Germany (RWTH)
• „Innenentwicklung in Luxemburg: Rahmenbedingungen, Praktiken, Paradoxien“, at the Difu-Seminar „Die Klaviatur der Innenentwicklung“, on 14^th November 2019 in Trier, Germany
• „Über den Stand der (angewandten) Kritik in der Geographie, oder: Ist es um die kritische Wissenschaft wirklich so schlimm bestellt?“, at the 2019 Deutscher Kongress für Geographie, on 29^th September 2019 in Kiel, Germany
• “Relationale Städte. Knotenpunkte globaler Wertketten und hot-spots lokaler Konflikte – Genf, Luxemburg und Singapur“, at the 2019 Deutscher Kongress für Geographie, on 26^th September 2019 in Kiel, Germany
• “The apolitical aims of digital urban development: Following Alphabet Inc.'s waterfront development in Toronto”, at the 2019 Annual Conference of the IGU-Urban Commission, on 9^th August 2019 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
• “Relational cities. Exploring niche-economic strategies and related urban development trajectories of Geneva (Switzerland), Luxembourg (Luxembourg) and Singapore”, at the 2019 Annual Conference of the IGU-Urban Commission, on 5^th August 2019 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
• „‘This country is punching far above its weight‘. Raumentwicklung und -planung in Luxemburg: Eine Einordnung“, at the Conference „Dezent Wunnen – zesumme liewen (Habiter décemment – Vivre ensemble)“ of the Fondation pour l‘Access au logement, on 16th May 2019 in Luxembourg-Kirchberg
• ‘Suburbia, Suburbanisierung, Suburbanität’, auf dem 3. Hochschultag vor Ort, University of Kassel, 27^th May 2019 in Kassel, Germany
• ‘Some notes on smart cities and the corporatization of urban governance’, at The International Symposium "The Emergence of the Smart City – Stakes, Challenges, Practices and Impacts on the Public Governance", jointly with Dr Constance Carr, on 5^th March 2019 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg“Suburbanisation, Suburbanism and Housing – What is the problem, how is it discussed, and what needs to be done?”, invited keynote at the International Symposium “Growing Bad? The Regional Sub-Urban Housing Challenge”, on 6^th September 2018 at RWTH, Aachen University, in Aachen, Germany
• “Relational cities. Exploring niche-economic strategies and related urban development trajectories of Geneva (Switzerland), Luxembourg (Luxembourg) and Singapore”, at the 2018 Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) with IBG, on 30^th August 2018 in Cardiff, Wales/UK
• „‘Große‘ Transformation: neuer Begriff, altes Dilemma?“, paper jointly presented with Antje Bruns, at the 4th Dortmund Spatial Planning-Conference „The Great Transformation“, on 6th February 2018, TU Dortmund, in Dortmund, Germany
• ‘Mobilising knowledge at the science-policy interface’, at the International Workshop on ‘Urban research across the theory-practice divide: modes of dialogue and/or disengagement’, on 21^st /22^nd September at the Hafencity-University (HCU) in Hamburg, Germany
• ‘”Freeports”: Driving vertical metropolisation in relational cities’, jointly with Catherine Wong, at the 2017 Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), on 7^th April 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts.
• ‚Landesplanung als Basis nachhaltiger Entwicklung in Luxemburg?’, Input at the Déjeuner d’échange (Lunch Exchange Seminar) « IDÉES À VOLONTÉ », organised by Caritas Luxembourg, on 25^th November 2016 in Luxembourg
• ‘Relational Cities in the age of Globalisation’, on the Global Urban Studies Workshop at the National University of Singapore (NUS), on 7^th November 2016 in Singapore
• ‘Teaching Geographical Writing: from techniques and mechanisms to habits and routines, practice and strategy’, jointly with Gerald Taylor Aiken, at the 2016 Annual Conference of the RGS-IBG, on 1^st Sep 2016 in London, UK
• ‘Amazon.com and the politics of circulation’, at the Seminar ‘Zones, Clusters, Nodes — Tracing Digital and Financial Flows through Concrete Places and Policies’, on the 27th June 2016 at the University of Luxembourg, Esch-Belval
• ‘Suburbaner Raum im Lebenszyklus’, at the 2015 German Congress for Geography, on 2^nd October in Berlin, Germany
• ‘The science-policy interface of geography & spatial planning: State power and the limits to co-production’, at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Urban Commission of the International Geographical Union (IGU), on 11^th August in Dublin, Ireland
• ‘L’Observatoire Belval – Saisir la dimension urbaine et régionale de la Cité des Sciences à Esch/Belval’, intervention at the Seminar ‘Les indicateurs territoriaux de développement durable en débats’, on 3^rd June in Villerupt, Lorraine, France
• ‘Digital vs. urban logics of production: Value creation, disruption and dislocation in the Internet age’, paper contribution to the session ‘Global perspectives on (re-)theorizing the urban through modes of production’, at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), on 23^rd April in Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Invited speaker in the Authors-meet-criticspanel “Suburban Governance – A Global View” (Hamel/Keil), at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), on 22^nd April in Chicago, Illinois, USA
• ‘Leitbilder der Raumentwicklung – Positionen des Ad-hoc Arbeitskreises der ARL’. At the 2014 ‘Regionalplanungskonferenz’ of the ARL, at the University of Würzburg in Würzburg/Germany, on the 25^th September 2014
• ‘Governing the global in urban networks: beliefs, traditions and dilemmas of agency in globalisation processes and discourses’. Invited Keynote at the 2014 ARL International Summer School ‘Global Urban Networks’, at Loughborough University in Loughborough/UK, on the 3^rd September 2014
• ‘Co-production at the science-policy interface of geography and planning: fruitful, delicate, contested? Observations from Luxembourg and Germany.’ At the 2014 Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers, in London/UK, on the 29^th August 2014 (Session 2 – ‘Mobilising Expert Knowledge in Sustainability Research’)
• ‘Focal firms and grand coalitions as global city makers: globalisation vs. new localism in Hamburg’s maritime network.’ Invited keynote, at the International Workshop ‘The Future of Global Hub-Port Development’, at Milan Politecnico, Milan/Italy, on the 6^th June 2014
• ‘Wachstum, Innovation, Metropolregion – ein epistemologischer Turn in der Raumordnungspolitik (1993-2006ff)?’ At the Scientific Conference ‘Räumliche Planung und Forschung nach 1945 – zwischen Technokratie und Demokratie’ of the Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL), at the University of Bonn in Bonn/Germany, on the 4^th April 2014 in Bonn
• ‘Enclave urbanism, multiple mobilities and blended scales: The emergence of enclave economic spaces in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.’ At the International Seminar ‘Living in Enclave Cities’ at Utrecht University, in Utrecht/The Netherlands, on 22^nd March 2014
• ‘Suburbaner Raum im Lebenszyklus. Ein Bericht aus der Forschungspraxis.’ At the SURF-Colloquium ‘Neue Suburbanisierungsforschung’ of the Technical University of Dortmund, Faculty of Spatial Planning, in Dortmund/Germany, on the 24^th January 2014
• 'The mental infrastructures of airport-urban development', invited paper at the ‘Airport Landscape-Conference’ of the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 15^th November 2013
• 'Focal firms and grand coalitions as global city makers: globalisation vs. new localism in Hamburg’s maritime network'. Paper in FS54 - “Global City Makers: Economic players in the World-City Network” – of the 2013 Geographentag, on 6^th October 2013, in Passau, Germany
• 'Reflexivität in Humangeographie und Raumplanung: das science-policyinterface'. Paperin FS 110 - „Die Rolle der Reflexivität in der geographischen Arbeit“- of the 2013 Geographentag, on 4^th October 2013, in Passau, Germany
• ‘Mega-urban regions – Epistemology, discourse patterns, big urban business’, at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers, 12 April 2013 in Los Angeles, California
• ‘Luxembourg – on borrowed size and flawed urbanization’, at the 6^th Conference “Champions League: Regional and urban development” within the 2013-Conference Cycle “Luxembourg: where we came from; where we are; where lies our possible future?”, of the Sacred Heart University, Luxembourg, 14^th March 2013 in Luxembourg
• 'International Hubs as a Factor of Local Development: The Example of Luxembourg'. At the 4th Halle Forum on Urban Economic Growth, 30th November 2012, Halle/Saale
• 'Regionalisation processes as practices of borderisation'. At the CEPS-Conference ‘Unpacking cross-border governance’, 6^th September 2012, Luxembourg
• ‘The constant flow of the urban ideal. Re-constructing the city through transatlantic policy discourses and policy mobilities’, at the 2012 CADAAD-Conference, 5^th July 2012 at the University of Minho, in Braga, Portugal (jointly with Rob Krueger, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts/USA)
• ‘The “Kirchberg-Syndrome”, or: big projects in a small country.  Theoretical reflections on the exceptional urbanism of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)’, at the 2012 Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), 27th February 2012, in New York City, USA
• ‘Wie kommt das Neue in die Welt? Über die Mobilität von Ideen und was wir damit in der Planung anfangen können’, at the „Dortmunder Konferenz für Raum- und Planungsforschung 2012 -- Mobilitäten und Immobilitäten“, 10th February 2012, in Dortmund, Germany
• ‘Cities and flows: re-asserting a relationship as fundamental as it is delicate’. Invited Brian Holye-Lecture at the 2011 Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers (RGS/IBG), 31st August 2011, in London, UK
• ‘Port regionalization and metropolitan land use’, at the OECD „Port cities“-workshop, 14th June 2011, in Paris, France
• ‘Epistemic communities: Über die Konstruktion von Metropolregionen als wettbewerbsfähige Räume. Oder: wie wissenschaftliches Wissen politikfähig gemacht wird’, at the 11. Symposium zur Wirtschaftsgeographie in Rauischholzhausen, 29 April 2011
• ‘Suburban areas – a case of stigmatized urban quarters?’, at the 2011 Annual Conference of the AAG, 13 April 2011 in Seattle, Washington (USA)
• ‘Identität und Raum: Das Beispiel Wohnen (Geographie)’, Ringvorlesung ‘Identität: Dekonstruktion eines Begriffs’, 23 March 2011 at UL
• Welcome to ‘Foreclosureville’. Credit crunch and the search for resilient suburbs – a case study of Northern California, USA, at the 2010 Annual Conference of the RGS/IBG, 2 Sep 2010 in London
• „Neue Attraktivität: und wenn ja, wie viele?“ Input at the project workshop on „A New Attractiveness of Cities?“, organized by the BBSR, 7 July in Bonn (more HERE)
• "Reurbanisation: framing and shaping the city through urban discourses", at the International Conference “Towards a communicative construction of spaces”, Erkner near Berlin, 29 May 2010
• "German city regions: urban, not necessarily metropolitan. A critical commentary on the political construction of metropolitan regions", at the 2010 AAG Annual Conference, Washington D.C., 14 April 2010
• "Der Binnenhafen als Gewerbestandort: Arbeitsmarkt vs. Stadtverträglichkeit", at the Binnen_Land-conference "Wie gehen die Städte mit ihren Häfen um"?, Berlin, 25 February 2010
• „Metropolitan Peripheries in Germany: the empirical evidence”. Symposium „Metropolitan Peripheries in Germany and Japan“ of the Japanese-German-Centre, Tokyo, 28 October 2009
• „Suburbs – the next Slum? Ungleiche Entwicklungsdynamik und Regenerierungspotenzial im Lebenszyklus suburbaner Räume Nordamerikas“, at the Deutscher Geographentag 2009, 21 September 2009 in Vienna, Austria
• „Zur Governance der Creative Industries“, co-authored with Bastian Lange, at the Deutscher Geographentag 2009, 20 September 2009 in Vienna, Austria
• “Re-theorizing urban geography: a transnational playing field for social and cultural geographies?”, at the 2009 Annual Conference of RGS-IBG, 28 August 2009 in Manchester, UK
• “The Luxembourg air-freight hub: market niche development, supply chain-insertion, global positionality”, at the International Colloquium ‘From Airport City to Airport Region?’ at the University of Karlsruhe, 10 July 2009
• „Luxemburg: Mikrometropole im globalen Netzwerk der flows“, at the 10th Symposium on Economic Geography in Rauischholzhausen, 24 April 2009
• „A micro-metropolis in the global network of flows: the case of Luxembourg and airfreight”, at the 2008 Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), 23 March 2009 in Las Vegas (Nevada)
• „The spatial rationale and structure of gateway regions, ports and inland terminals”, at the „Deltatag 2009“ of the RSD Rhein-Schelde-Delta, 8 December 2008 in Antwerp, The Netherlands
• „Suburbs – the next slum? Explorations into the contested terrain of social construction and political discourse”, at the Conference „Revisiting the 'Urban' and the 'Rural': Spatial Representations and Practices”, 5 December 2008, University of Luxembourg
• „Raum und Zeit: neue Muster des aktionsräumlichen Handelns“, at the Conference „e-motion 2008“, 21 October 2009 in Bonn
• „Suburbs – the next slum?”, at the International Symposium „Shrinking Cities ff“, 17 October 2008 in Berlin
• ‘Cities, flows and the geography of spatial interaction. A typology of urban places’. At the 104th Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), 18.4.2008 in Boston, Massachusetts
• ‘Logistikregionen als strategischer Ansatz der regionalen Entwicklung‘. At the Colloquium of the Chair of Economic Geography and Regional Studies of the University of Bayreuth, 15.1.2008 in Bayreuth
• ‘Feuer als Faktor der Regionalentwicklung. Waldbrandereignisse und gesellschaftlicher Diskurs: das Beispiel Galicien, Spanien’. At the Bi-annual Conference of the German Society of Geographers (Deutscher Geographentag), FS 12 – Geographische Waldbrandforschung, 2.10.2007 in Bayreuth
• ‘Alltagsort, Transitraum, Drehscheibe. Die Stadtregion in der Welt der flows’. At the Centennial Symposium ‘Lebensraum Stadtregion’ of Deutscher Werkbund, 29.6.2007 in Frankfurt/Main
• ‘The physical geography of the network city: infrastructural dimensions’. Co-paper with Prof. Dr. Martin Wachs (Rand, Santa Monica), in the paper series ‘The Network City’ of the Center for Metropolitan Studies (CMS), TU Berlin, 8.5.2007 in Berlin
• ‘Logistik in Unternehmensnetzen und Wertschöpfungsketten: ein missing link der Wirtschaftsgeographie‘. At the 9th Symposium of Economic Geography, 28.4.2007 in Rauischholzhausen
• ‘Shrinking cities, demografic change, and the politics of urbanization. A discourse analysis’. At the 103rd Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), 21.4.2007 in San Francisco, California
• ‘Zum Verhältnis von Stadt und Warenwirtschaft – eine kritische Reflektion aus Sicht von Stadtökonomie und Stadtplanung‘. At the Conference ‘Logistics and Urban Planning’ at the University of Dortmund, 13.9.2006 in Dortmund
• ‘Schrumpfende oder atmende Stadt? Überlegungen zur Einordnung von Schrumpfungsprozessen in die Urbanisierung’. At the Annual Conference of the Institute for Comparative Urban History (IStG gGmbH), 27.3.2006 in Münster
• ‘Switzerland – An Urban Portrait’. Discussant on the ‘Author meets critics’-panel with Christian Schmid, at the 102nd Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), 9.3.2006 in Chicago, Illinois
• ‘Gateway cities, hinterland and the network: re-conceptualizing flows and places in the post-industrial city’. At the 102nd Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), 9.3.2006 in Chicago, Illinois
• ‘Reife, Stagnation oder Wende? Deutsche und internationale Perspektiven zu Suburbanisierung und Zwischenstadt’. Introduction to FS 1 at the 55th Conference of the German Society of Geographers (Deutscher Geographentag), 3.10.2005 in Trier
• ‘Transformation of cities in view of comparative urban studies’. Discussant to Roger Keil, Workshop of the North America Working Group of the German Society of Geographers (DGfG), at the 55th Conference of the German Society of Geographers (Deutscher Geographentag), 6.10.2005 in Trier
• ‘Selling the region as a hub: on the construction of space by creating logistics regions, dedicated to the distribution of goods’. At the Annual Conference of the RGS with IBG, 2.9.2005 in London
• ‘Global chain, local pain, and the question of power: how to manage the regional implications of global production and distribution networks’. At the 101st Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), 7.4.2005 in Denver, Colorado
• ‘Suburbanisierung, Postsuburbia, Schrumpfung: Gegenstand und Deutungsangebote der Stadtforschung’. At the Colloquium of the Institute for Regional and Urban Studies (ILS) of the State of North-Rhine Westphalia, 19.1.2005 in Dortmund
•  ‘Logistics and freight transport policy in urban areas. A case study of Berlin-Brandenburg/Germany’. At the International Geographical Congress (IGC), 17.8.2004 in Glasgow
• ‘Stadtleben - Citylife: How do lifestyles and spatial milieux explain urban mobility (daily, residential)’? At the annual meeting of the IGU-Commission ‘Monitoring Cities of Tomorrow’,11.8.2004 in Glasgow
• ‘Handlung oder Raum? Die Rolle der Geographie in einer modernen Verkehrswissenschaft’. At the Colloquium of the Geographical Institute of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, 9.6.2004 in Erlangen
• ‘Re-thinking distribution: bringing together the economic and transport geographies of logistics’. At the Centennial Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), 18.3.2004 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• ‘The Transport Geography of Freight Distribution and Logistics – North American and Western European Perspectives’. At Focus Group 1-meeting (Globalisation, E-Economy and Trade) of the Transatlantic research network STELLA, 25.4.2003 in Brussels, with Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
• Statement on the research field ‘Suburbia’, at the ‘Forum Bau und Raum’ of the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR), 27.3.2003 in Berlin
• ‘Land for logistics: locational dynamics, real estate markets and political regulation’. At the 99th Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers, 5.3.2003 in New Orleans, Louisiana
• ‘Geographies of Distribution’. At the 98th Annual Conference of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), 22.3.2002 in Los Angeles, California
• ‘Investigating logistics and distribution in an urban context. Case studies from Northern California and Berlin/Brandenburg’. At the UC Transportation Center, UC California at Berkeley, 19.3.2002 in Berkeley, California
• ‘Wohnmilieus, Lebensstile und räumliche Mobilität in ostdeutschen Stadtlandschaften‘. At the 53rd Conference of the German Society of Geographers (Deutscher Geographentag), 5.10.2001 in Leipzig
• ‘The City as a Terminal – Freight transport as an indicator of urban and regional development’. At the annual meeting of the IGU-Commission ‘Monitoring Cities of Tomorrow’, 7.8.2001 in Calgary, Canada
• ‘Warenwirtschaft, technologische Innovationen und Raumentwicklung. Logistik und (Sub-) Urbanisierung im transatlantischen Vergleich’. At the annual meeting of the North America Working Group of the German Society of Geographers (DGfG), 1.12.2000 in Bonn
• ‘Städte im Binnenland – vom Marktplatz und Zentrum des Warenumschlags zum logistischen Satelliten?‘. At the 52nd Conference of the German Society of Geographers (Deutscher Geographentag), 5.10.1999 in Hamburg (Leitthema B: Weltwirtschaft, Mobilität und Hafenstädte, Sitzung 1: Welthandel, Verkehrswirtschaft und neue Technologien)
• ‘Freight transport and logistics in city regions: driving forces for counter-urbanization? Investigations on the modern urban landscape’. At the ‘SCAST-Conference on Social Change and Sustainable Transport’, funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF), 4.3.1999 in Berkeley, California
• ‘Sustainable mobility - aims, methods, strategies’. At the International Conference ‘Urban Ecology’ of the Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig-Halle (UFZ), 26.06.1997 in Leipzig
• ‘From city-logistics to urban logistics’. At the Conference ‘City-Logistics’ of the Association Suisse pour Logistique (SGL/ASL), 6.05.1996 in Basel (CH)
• ‘Environmental research in Germany’. At the International Conference ‘Think-Tanks in Germany and the USA’, University of Pennsylvania, 16.11.1993 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• ‘A regional freight-traffic round table’. At the International Conference ‘Shaping Cities’ of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN '92), 15.10.1992 in Paris
• ‘Regionale Konzepte nachhaltiger Entwicklung am Beispiel von zwei Regionen in Ost und West‘. At the Conference ‘Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften - aber wie?’ of the ‘Global Challenges Network’ (GCN), 04./05.02.1992 in Tutzing

Last updated on: 06 Feb 2023

Teaching Materials

PhD Supervision

• Michael J. Rafferty: "Re-assembling the Housing Question: the new political economy of urban transformation"
• Tom Becker: “Evidence-Based Policy Making or Policy-Based Evidence Making? The politics and implications of policy transfer in EU sustainable urban development initiatives” (jointly w/Prof. Frank Witlox, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium)
• Evan McDonough: ‘Global flows, local conflicts and the challenge of urban governance: Managing the city-airport interface in London, UK’ (UL, funded by UL), successfully defended in Feb 2018.
• Nathalie Christmann: ‘Residential migration of Luxembourgish citizens within the Greater Region – An inter-urban discourse analysis’ (UL, funded by FNR/AFR), successfully defended in Oct 2017.
• Annick Leick: ‘Large-scale urban projects in Luxembourg’ (UL, funded by FNR/AFR), successfully defended in Feb 2016.
• Kerstin Schenkel: "Politische Partizipation in der sozialen Stadt" (AFR, FNR); successfully defended in April 2014
• Benjamin Otto: "Einfluss von Bodenmarkt und Raumplanung auf Zwischennutzung"
• Jutta Deffner, Dipl.-Ing.: ‘Was beeinflusst Zufußgehen und Fahrradfahren in der Stadt? Stile nicht-motorisierter Mobilität auf Basis bewohnerzentrierter Untersuchungen in ausgewählten Berliner Stadtquartieren’. Technical University Dortmund/Freie Universität Berlin (finished 2008)
• Anke Ruckes, Dipl.-Ing.: ‘Potenziale und Restriktionen für eine gewerbliche Folgenutzung von innerstädtischen Verfügungsflächen - am Beispiel von Logistikunternehmen in Berlin’. Freie Universität/Humboldt-University Berlin
• Betka Zakirova, Dipl.-Geogr.: ‘Shrinkage at the urban fringe: Case studies in the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region’. Freie Universität/Humboldt-University Berlin (finished 4/2010)

The last four PhD-theses have emerged out of the Graduate Study Programme (Graduiertenkolleg) 780 - ‘Urban Ecology’, co-ordinated at the Geographical Institute of Humboldt-University, Berlin, and funded by the German Research Organisation (DFG), 2002-2011.

External PhD-examiner

• Joris Beckers: “The logistics sector in a consumer driven society, essays on the location and network structure”, Dept. of Transport and Economics, University of Antwerp, Belgium (March 2019)
• Adéline Heitz: “La Métropole Logistique: Structure métropolitaine et enjeux d’aménagement. La dualisation des espaces logistiques métropolitaines”, Université Paris-Est, France, Spécialité «Aménagement de l‘Espace et Urbanisme» (defended in June 2017)
• Eloïse Libourel: « Le corridor ferroviaire méditerranéen », at the University of Paris-Est, Ecole Doctorale VTT – Villes, transport, territoires (defended in November 2015)
• Jan Polivka: ‘Lifecycles in mature suburban areas’, Technical University of Dortmund, Faculty of Spatial Planning (defense in April 2015);
• Mina Akhavan: ‘Port development and port-city interface. The case of Dubai Hub-Port City’, Politecnico University of Milan, Dept. of Architecture & Urban Studies (defense in March 2015);
• Kostas Antonopoulos: ‘Port-city globalisation and the maritime-territory nexus: A case study of Piraeus/Athens’, University of Manchester, UK, School of Geography & Environment (viva July 2013);
• Roland Busch: ‘Die räumliche Verteilung und raumstrukturelle Entwicklung von Logistikimmobilienstandorten in Deutschland’, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany, FG Ökonomie des Planens & Bauens (defended in April 2013);
• Jason Monios: ‘A case study analysis of the role of intermodal transport in port regionalization’, Edinburgh Napier University, UK (viva in February 2013). 

Furthermore, about 50 students have been supervised over the last 5-8 years in writing their Diploma, B.Sc.- and teachers examination-thesis, situated in a broad range of issues in urban, economic, transport, social and cultural geography. More recently, M.Sc.-thesis in Metropolitan Studies are under preparation, focussing on issues such as regional economic development in comparative perspective or attitudes and practices of the global mobile elite.

Last updated on: 03 Jun 2019