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Both, in metropolitan and in rural areas cities are regarded as centers of socio-spatial, cultural and economic activities. Although digital possibilities rise, and online worlds are nearly ubiquitous reachable, large cities and their environments are attractive locations for knowledge-intensive services. But what’s the case in small-and medium-sized cities in the polycentric system of cities in Germany?

For that, my research interest is, to analyze the role of small-and medium-sized cities in Germany in the knowledge economy from a geographical perspective. I want to pay attention to different processes and conditions that can influence the importance of these cities in the special field of knowledge-intensive branches. In addition to a focus on the entire knowledge economy, the research project differentiates three types of knowledge-economic activities, that have different spatial requirements and thus influence the importance of small and medium-sized cities as places of work in varying ways: knowledge-intensive services, cultural and creative industries and research-intensive industries. In doing so, different research strands are linked with urban system research, economics, social sciences and spatial sciences. Hence, especially small and medium-sized towns in Germany have the potential to become places to live and work and therefore to reduce the pressure on the polycentric system of cities and the large towns in agglomerations. However, if small and medium-sized cities can be identified, which are becoming more important as places of work in the knowledge economy and reasons for this increase in importance can be elaborated, then there …