Suchergebnisse

Medobčinsko sodelovanje na primeru zveze občin na območju Voitsberga (zahodna Štajerska) Pojav aglomeracij majhnih mest, kakršna je na območju Voitsberga na zahodnem Štajerskem v Avstriji, so nov izziv za načrtovalce regionalne politike. Urbani, socialni in liberalni trendi gospodarskega razvoja so vzrok številnim problemom na lokalni ravni, ki jih občine same ne morejo reševati. Zato se povezujejo v interesne skupnosti, ena od takšnih je prikazana v prispevku. Tvori jo pet manjših občin. Dodatni problem predstavlja tudi zadovoljevanje togih Maastrichtskih kriterijev, zaradi katerih so zmanjšujejo občinski prihodki in povečujejo izdatki. Vse to, ob potrebi po zagotavljanju novih delovnih mest, izboljšanju in modernizaciji komunalnih storitev ter zagotavljanju preživetja občin ob vedno večji tekmovalnosti, je prepričalo občinske oblasti, da je sodelovanje s sosednjimi občinami, ki imajo podobne probleme, najboljši način za iskanje optimalnih rešitev. Zveza občin tako poskuša reševati probleme s sodelovanjem na prostovoljni osnovi. Avtor poudarja, da je medobčinsko sodelovanje v območjih zgoščene urbane poselitve nujno ter zahteva nove prijeme v upravljanju. ; Small-town-agglomerations like the one in Western Styria comprising five communities to form a "Kernraumallianz (core-area-alliance)" are a new and growing challenge for regional planners politicians, urban-, social-, and liberal trends in economy have brought about new problems for the communes which they themselves are no longer able to solve. An additional hardship is caused by the obligation to fulfil the rigid Maastricht – criteria facing shrinking communal incomes and rising expenditures. All that together with the necessity to create new jobs, to modernize and improve communal services, all in all to make the single community competitive in its struggle for survival has convinced communal politicians that cooperation with their neighbouring partners facing similar problems is probably the best way to find opt solutions. This way, however, turns out a very stony one, wherein reducing the financial burden is perhaps the biggest obstacle. The "Kernraumallianz" tries to overcome the communal crisis through cooperation on a free will basis. It should be mentioned in this context, however, that inter-communal cooperation in densely settled urban areas is today is a necessity and demands new modes of administration since communal growth not only of the core-cities has transgressed administrational confines long ago.

The phenomenon of urban blight dates back to the 19th century when industrialisation starting in Europe and North America initiated an uncontrolled urban growth in combination with strong demand in cheap an quickly constructed housing. Ghettoisation of mainly the working-class population and other "marginal groups" were the consequence together with a constant decay of single buildings, whole blocks and quarters. These general aspects of urban blight with its additional facettes or aspects residential, commercial, industrial, physical, functional and social blight can be presupposed and will not be topic of this paper. Nevertheless urban blight is by no means a topic of the past, it still today challenges apart from geographers a remarkable number of other disciplines (urban and landscape planners and designers, economists, sociologists, medical sciences, etc., not to forget politicians, the media, and last but not least the city dwellers themselves). While urban blight, urban decay, - decline, or - crisis originally seemed to be a problem of the big cities and metropolises it meanwhile also affects the small towns and centers. By the example of two Styrian small towns, Murau and Eisenerz, both counting less than 5.000 inhabitants each some of the many reasons for their being confronted with symptoms of urban blight will be addressed together with the up to now largely unsolved question which possible counter strategies could be successfully applied. One namely "urban redesign" has been chosen from a number of others mainly because it has been selected by the city of Eisenerz as a strategy against urban blight and to fight the dramatic population losses of 7867 citizens between 1951 (pop.: 12948) and 2010 (pop.: 5087). The crucial questions for the future to be discussed facing the present world wide monetary crisis will be: 1. Will there be enough money to finance the necessary rescue measures? 2. Who pays and bears the risks of a failure? 3. Is it worth while and justified to invest huge amounts of public money into a seemingly bottomless barrel or 4. borrowing an idea from the human hospice-movement: would it not be wiser, more human, and cost-efficient to spend much less money for those measures only that are needed to guarantee a patient (city) with little or uncertain perspectives for the future a survival in dignity. Knowing that the hospice movement was severely questioned in its initial phase although today it is widely accepted and respected the transformation of this idea into the urban sphere as one means to discuss the problem of urban decay and urban blight seems justified.

The topic presented might – at first glance - seem to be too regionally focused but is in fact deeply rooted in the present EU and the worldwide economic and financial crisis, reaching far beyond Austria's borders. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Austrian communities of a total of 2,358 (1998) have failed to achieve a balanced communal budget. The reasons for this unpleasant situation are manifold and, as the recent national and international banking scandals have shown, they have even been caused by criminal activities (high-risk speculations, corruption, etc.), the lack in skills and qualifications of party-politicians, nepotism, etc. All these failures have evoked broad interest in Austria's mass-media for more than two years now. However, we must not forget that there are a lot of other reasons, structural in nature, for the financial crisis of so many Austrian communities. Among these structural reasons, one must first mention the small size of the majority of Austria's communes. More than one quarter of them have less than 1,000 inhabitants, and there are still many with below 500 citizens. In such small communities administration is simply inefficient. Another reason for the communal crisis must be seen in various prestige projects (sports grounds, spas, etc.) but also in the costs of maintenance and administration of hospitals, schools, kindergartens, fire brigades, etc.), and in the support and subvention of other social institutions. The paper discusses administrative reform as one tool in fighting against the present communal crisis, which quite often ends up in communal marginality. ; Na prvi pogled može se učiniti da je tema problematizirana u ovom radu regionalnoga karaktera, no ustvari je duboko ukorijenjena u trenutačnu ekonomsku i financijsku krizu te nadilazi granice Austrije. Više od tisuću austrijskih općina od ukupno 2358 (1998. godine) ne uspijeva ostvariti uravnotežen općinski proračun. Razlozi za takvu situaciju višestruki su, a nedavni nacionalni i međunarodni bankarski skandali pokazuju da su dijelom povezani i s kriminalnim aktivnostima (visokorizične spekulacije, korupcija i sl.), manjkom sposobnosti i vještina političara, nepotizmom i sl. Svi ti neuspjesi pokazali su se vrlo zanimljivima austrijskim medijima, međutim ne treba zaboraviti da mnogi drugi, strukturni problemi utječu na financijsku krizu austrijskih općina, među kojima je važna i njihova veličina. Tako više od četvrtine austrijskih općina broji manje od tisuću stanovnika, a postoji i značajan broj općina s manje od petsto stanovnika. U tako malim jedinicama lokalne samouprave administracija je neučinkovita. Razlog leži i u raznim tzv. prestižnim projektima poput toplica i sportskih dvorana, ali i u održavanju bolnica, vrtića i vatrogasnih društava i upravljanju njima te subvencioniranju drugih institucija. U radu se problematizira administrativna reforma kao mjera suzbijanja krize koja često završava marginalizacijom lokalnih jedinica samouprave.

There are two bundles of forces shaping the environment: natural and human ones. Cultural landscapes are predominantly the result of human activities. Probably the most serious influencing factor in the civilized world on modelling cultural landscapes is national and international legislation which, again, is the outcome of policies and ideologies, social, economical and cultural backgrounds. The author concentrates on policy and legislation with special emphasis on agricultural law and regional planning regulations because they affect human shaping of landscapes the most. ; Dvije su glavne sile oblikovanja pejzaža: prirodne i društvene. Kulturni pejzaži ponajprije su rezultat čovjekove djelatnosti. Možda je upravo najutjecajniji čimbenik oblikovanja pejzaža u današnjemu civiliziranom svijetu nacionalno i međunarodno zakonodavstvo, koje je pak rezultat politike, ideologija te društvene, gospodarske i kulturne pozadine. Autor je posebnu pozornost posvetio politici i zakonodavstvu, s naglaskom na zakon o poljoprivredi i regulative regionalnog planiranja upravo zbog njihova ključnog utjecaja na oblikovanje pejzaža.