ABSTRACT
Dortmund is one of the largest cities in the polycentric industrial Ruhr area. The Ruhr area was an industrial core of Europe and one of the most prosperous regions. However, since the 1970s the dominant ‘smokestack industries’ (such as coal, iron and steel industries) have declined steeply, and the region has suffered from this de-industrialisation process resulting in high unemployment rates (16% in 2005), above the German average of 12.5% (RVR, 2006a). The de-industrialisation process and upgrading differ widely within the Ruhr area; some cities still have a strong industrial base and have successfully upgraded industrial sectors (the region has gained a competitive advantage in environmental research technology, energy supplies and waste disposal) (Hospers, 2004), while in other cities manufacturing nearly disappeared. Dortmund is an example of the latter, as it opted for a renewal strategy (the ‘Dortmund project’) focusing on three knowledge-intensive service sectors, information and communication technology (ICT), microsystems technology (MST) and logistics, while the pillar industries of the past (beer, steel and coal) nearly disappeared. Dortmund has the lowest share of workers in the manufacturing industries; only 13% of the workers are active in manufacturing, whereas in the Ruhr area on average this is 21%.1
