Placemaking in the RhineMain Regionalpark

Abstract: This thesis presents a case study on the RhineMain Regionalpark in the context of placemaking and governance. As the second-oldest regional park in Germany, the RhineMain Regionalpark offers vast green open spaces all throughout the region for leisure and recreation to citizens and visitors. At the same time, it promotes sustainable development and regional identity. Placemaking, on the other hand, describes a collective process of transforming places. It aims at giving meaning to places. Further, governance as a concept provides a tool for analyzing cooperative steering processes. It allows actors from different levels and backgrounds to operate in informal, network-like structures. In the literature, there is advocacy in favor of the assumption of a connection which would allow governance to form as a result of placemaking. Drawing on this theory, we will set out to investigate how the RhineMain Regionalpark utilizes such concepts.