Urban regions around the globe are developing in very different manner. Nevertheless, the are several common themes: (*) historic administrative boundaries do not represent real urban structures any more, cities expand beyond these boundaries and form metropolitan regions, which may even result in transnational functional urban areas and agglomerations; (*) in almost all cases it is of utmost importance to coordinate urban development between several governments, administrative authorities and institutions on different levels, but this task turns out to be a quite difficult one; (*) cities and regions are hungry for resources and see themselves opposed to density and environmental problems as well as other threats, nevertheless sustainability, resilience, high quality of life and considerate exploitation of natural resources are central goals of urban development; (*) new technologies and digitisation play an essential role in the development of cities, urban regions and metropolises – without appropriate urban, environmental and mobility technologies it would hardly be possible to see urban development, maintenance of functionality and creation of livable urban areas. In numerous European cities and agglomerations, in particular, we can currently see two kinds of processes which may appear to be contradictory at first glance: reurbanisation and regionalisation. City centres and centrally located urban quarters become more attractive, especially for people who (re-)discover the benefits of urban life. This return to core cities as a place of life has a lot of reasons, but it is strongly linked to changes in the working environment and the trend to combine working and living much more as it waspossible in suburban fringe areas. In this regard, well equipped and multi-functional urban quarters do have their advantages. At the same time we have a regionalisation of urban issues, mostly because cities get more and more under pressure. Even if cities and villages are changing, they keep being places of (collective) memory and recognition; places where bonds are established. Identity and homeland – terms that are supposed to designate such qualities of a city – are, however, not based solely on the familiarity of a living environment whose essential characteristics have hardly changed over a long period of time, but can be traced back to the specific atmospheric qualities of a city, a neighbourhood or a region. Therefore, not only the architectural heritage with its historical buildings, streets, open spaces and districts is decisive for the identity of a city, but also the ability to create new, convincing and in the best case unmistakable atmospheres within the framework of urban development. REAL CORP 2020 aimed to discuss strategies and concepts for quality change management in the light of the challenges outlined above, which arise in neighbourhoods, cities, urban regions and metropolitan areas in Europe and around the globe. Questions of who the actual actors of current urban, regional and metropolitan regional development are and what role planners can play in the corresponding scenarios were also explored.weiterlesen