ABSTRACT
The Stuttgart metropolitan region is part of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg (south-western Germany) and consists of the administrative counties1 Ludwigsburg, Rems-Murr, Göppingen, Esslingen, Böblingen and the city of Stuttgart at its centre (see figure 10.1). Thinking in terms of a Stuttgart metropolitan region – and not only in terms of different administrative counties and municipalities – is a rather new phenomenon: it dates back only to the early 1990s when the term was coined in the context of the reorientation of spatial planning policy in Germany and Baden-Württemberg. Since then, such metropolitan regions as Stuttgart, RhineMain, Hamburg and Berlin are seen as motors of socio-economic development in the process of European integration. The hope is that the Stuttgart metropolitan region will act as a catalyst for economic competitiveness and foster the integration of other regions in Baden-Württemberg into the European economy. To support this goal, an institutionalisation in the form of the Association of the Stuttgart Region has taken place in order to let the economic region – as regional actors emphasise – speak with one political voice.
