Suburbane Räume als Kulturlandschaften

The conceptualisation of suburban spaces as cultural landscapes still represents a provocation within the German research tradition. It is, however, increasingly common in international spatial research. Indeed, several policy documents concerning European spatial development call for suburban spaces to be seen as cultural landscapes. Similarly, the 2006 German Spatial Planning guideline “Preserving resources, shaping cultural landscapes” understands all spaces, including suburban, as cultural landscapes and sees cultural landscapes overall as being an important qualitative supplement to traditional spatial development policy. This volume is intended to show that the cultural landscape viewpoint can indeed contribute to the structuring of a new perception of suburban spaces, as it helps to uncover the ecological, aesthetic, cultural and everyday qualities of these spaces, the very existence of which is not always acknowledged. This involves extending the rather functional way in which spatial planning sees this hybrid spatial type and can thus represent a starting point for more adequate forms of cooperative regional development policy, as the examples make clear.