EUによる都市政策“ URBAN Community Initiative” の実態:デュースブルク市マルクスロー地区の事例

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The purpose of this article is to describe the realities of the European Union’s URBAN Community Initiative, urban policy, looking at the case of Marxloh district in Duisburg, Germany, based principally upon my own fixed-point observations since the early 1990s as well as various documents published by the Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (Insitut für Landes- und Stadtentwicklung), which is affiliated with the Ministry for Building and Transport of the State of North-Rhine and Westphalia in Germany, and by the Institute for Social and Cultural Research (Insitut für Sozial und Kulturforschung e.V.), which is a nongovernmental research institute located in Duisburg. Both institutes have followed Project Marxloh, which was implemented during the second half of the 1990s to promote the regeneration of this disadvantaged district, partly based on a subsidy from the EU, and they have published reports evaluating of the project. Marxloh, with a population of about 20,000, is a run-down district in the socioeconomic as well as environmental sense. It is the site of a large-scale steel plant and most of the flats were developed between the end of the19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Emissions from the steel plant caused environmental problems and the quality of dwelling units in the flats as well as the residential environment became unsuitable for the standard of living at the end of the 20th century. The unemployment rate has beenvery high since the mid 1970s and the proportion of foreigners, especially Turks, is also high. Marxloh’s image as a residential district has been poor at least since the 1970s, although it is not the worst among the 46 districts of Duisburg.Before the regeneration project in Marxloh was adopted as a program under the URBAN Community Initiativ that was launched by the EU in 1994, the upgrading of the built environment including housing, public spaces, roads etc., was the main target of the regeneration program. At the end of 1993, relief work for the unemployed suddenly began in this district, financed through the Federal Agency for Employment Exchange, and the workers hired under the program engaged in repair work on schools andother public buildings and sites in the district. The following year, Development Corporation Marxloh Ltd. (EntwicklungsgesellschaftMarxloh: EGM) was established as a fully-owned subsidiary of the municipal government of Duisburg, with the mission to redevelop the built environment of the district of Marxloh. The relief work for the unemployedwas extended to other fields of manual work including carpentry and restaurant businesses, along with social services including nursing and childcare. This program was called District Project Marxloh and was directly run by a department within the city administration. It included atraining program for the upgrading of skills, supported by local institutionsinvolved in social welfare as well as education. Project Marxloh, which consists of the District Project of Marxloh andthe work done by EGM, was not adopted until the end of 1995 as a program under the EU’s URBAN Community Initiative. After its adoption, the Office of Economic Development was established in 1996 by the EGM, because the EU placed heavy emphasis on improving the socioeconomic situation of people in run-down urban districts. Therefore, we can interpret the process as follows: the state government of North-Rhine and Westphalia and the municipal government of Duisburg, both of which had information regarding the EU’s new urban policy quickly invested moneycoupled with the subsidy from the Federal Agency for Labor Exchange for the relief work for the unemployed. This marked a departure from the traditional urban policy in Germany, which had been oriented principally to the redevelopment of built environment including old deteriorated flats.Project Marxloh was successful in the sense that the district’s built environment was improved and the unemployed local residents were able to gain temporary earnings. The Office of Economic Development of EGM engaged not only in economic promotion in Marxloh, but also in a variety of tasks similar to those of district managers allocated to other run-down urban districts in German cities in the 21st century within the framework of the socially integrative City Program of Federal and Länder cooperation. It is especially noteworthy that a new organization of Turkish entrepreneurs was established with the support of the Office of Economic Development, symbolizing the empowerment of minorities in German society. Several new small enterprises were also established with consulting from the Office. However, the report of the Institute for Social and Cultural Research finds that NPOs, which have long been rooted in Marxloh and are engaged with social work there, did not enthusiastically participate in the URBANprogram implemented for this district and that some of them made critical comments on the activities of EGM and District Project Marxloh, although they cooperated with each other and expressed admiration for devotion of the employees of the Office of Economic Development to the public work. The district’s socioeconomic situation does not appear to have improved in a sustainable way, at least from my own observations. There has been an increase in vacant shops along the main shopping streets especially those distant from the Pollmann crossroads district center. In the early 1990s, bycontrast, there were hardly any such vacancies. Thus, it is necessary to reexamine the sustainability of the results of URBAN Community Initiative.
2010-03-15

著者

山本健兒
九州大学経済学研究院

EUによる都市政策“ URBAN Community Initiative” の実態:デュースブルク市マルクスロー地区の事例

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