Martin Heintel

“European Spatial Development Perspective: Transnational Cooperation and
Cohesion”

Tuesday, March 20th:  3p.m., 2007
Education Building, Room 205
Reception to follow

European regions are territorial units of different size and character. There is a wide variety, ranging from urban and small rural regions to large European cross-border regions. Since the fall of the iron curtain in 1989, the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and in 2007, all regions are undergoing rapid changes. The positioning of a region in a global competition to meet its cultural and economic characteristics, the development and coordination of strategies to take advantage of its special features, and the support of the region’s innovation are some central aspects in spatial planning and regional economic development. Transnational and cross-border cooperation will be one of the most important priorities for the next EU structural funds period (2007-2013) to support a partnership for economic and social cohesion.

Martin Heintel was born in 1967 in Vienna. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Regional Research, Vienna University. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Salzburg/Austria (2006), Humboldt-University Berlin/Germany (2005), Babeş-Bolyai University  Cluj-Napoca/Romania (2004) and at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich/Germany (2003). His main fields of interest include spatial and regional development, cross-border cooperation, regional management and third world mega-cities in South East Asia. From 1996 to 2000 he had several research stays in Jakarta, Singapore, Manila and Hong Kong.