Birmingham und das Black Country: wirtschaftlicher und raumstruktureller Wandel in der West Midlands Conurbation

The urban region around Birmingham and the Black Country -the so-called West Midlands Conurbation- is the economic centre of the West Midlands region and one of the biggest agglomerations in Great Britain. Here, since the seventies in a painful process of transformation a change of the industrial heartland into a more service-oriented metropolis has been going on. The economic change is accompanied by changes of persistent spatial structures. Measures of revitalisation chiefly pursue the aim to turn Birmingham into an international business centre. The essay surveys current trends in the development of spatial structures in the West Midlands Conurbation by the example of selected parts of the area. In particular, the city core of Birmingham, the old industrialized areas and the urban fringe are dealt with. In the city an increase in office space and a tendency towards expansion of the business centre into neighbouring districts is to be observed. In the parts of the town characterized by industry processes of decay and renewal are often going on side by side. Frequently, service facilities and retail shops are subsequent users of old industrial areas. One problem is the insufficient consideration of consequences of individual redevelopment projects for the whole city. In the outskirts, road construction and land consumption by business parks threaten to spoil the green belt surrounding the conurbation