ABSTRACT
The increasing networking of cities has stood out as one important indication of the crumbling of previous walls. Actually, already since the 1970s individual cities, along with other subnational as well as transnational regional players, have made their mark also in the international sphere. Their specific strength lies in being avant garde, i.e., in what is dynamic, flexible, participation-oriented, and not in structures, institutional machineries, enforcement mechanisms, regulation and control. In order to make normative sense of the city-oriented approach, a closer look into the theoretical frames and the conceptual departures applied in the various studies focusing on the role of cities in Northern Europe might be called for. The question is then whether frames and departures have emerged that enable the cities to make use of their full potential and what the use of such frames means more generally. Clearly, cities have stood out as horizon of expectations in Northern Europe after the demise of the Cold War.
