Urban and Regional Development

In urban and regional development, a transformation from formal to informal instruments has been taking place for years. At the same time, the implementation of programmes and projects is being decentralized to local stakeholder networks.

Both the experimental nature of many new steps in spatial development and the associated uncertainties as well as the aforementioned decentralization of planning, use of funds and implementation require efficient evaluation, primarily with the aim of improving the quality of urban and regional development through joint learning between actors and evaluators. In view of the given mix of different actors and stakeholders in urban and regional development, evaluations pose considerable theoretical, methodological and practical problems. Contributing to their solution is the program of the working group.

After a kick-off meeting in spring 2002, the working group was founded on April 11, 2002 at a workshop in Jena. At the foundation, those present gave the working group the following "preliminary tasks and objectives":

The members of the AK see their work as a contribution to quality assurance and enhancement of evaluations in urban and regional development. The AK forms a forum,

• to deal with questions of evaluation in urban and regional development in accordance with scientific requirements and the DeGEval standards for evaluation, and
• across disciplinary boundaries and
• to discuss questions between politics, administration, companies and scientific institutions,
• to promote a permanent exchange of experience and inter-institutional learning,
• to promote the development of methods,
• to develop efficient concepts and strategies,
• to participate in the development of standards and quality criteria,
• inform about evaluation and its utilization,
• to increase the acceptance of evaluations in politics, administration and the public.

The working group is deliberately located at the interface between funding providers and recipients as well as scientific institutions for evaluation research and training.

The work of the working group is carried out in particular through the organization of conferences, symposia and workshops as an opportunity for the various players in evaluation to meet and as a platform for the exchange of information and learning.