Vienna

With more than 1.6 million inhabitants in the city proper and another 2.2 million in the immediate surrounding area Vienna, the capital of the Republic of Austria, is one of the largest cities in Europe. If the city is evaluated by its historical significance, cultural heritage or the quality of life it falls in the top rank. It is the specific image of Vienna which allows it to be seen as more important than may be suggested by its place in the global rankings of cities. However, globalization has changed the urban fabric of the city dramatically within the last decade, confronting urban planners with tensions between the demands of the global economies and the necessity of coping with the historic structures that have evolved in course of the city’s rise to become a European metropolis in the 19th century. Still, the legacy of social cohesion in Vienna is being eroded by the restructuring of urban society due to the global economies. Social cohesion, urban regeneration and the challenges of the global competition of cities have recently been the prime agendas of urban planning in Vienna. In this competition the cultural heritage of the city’s glorious past reveals itself as a prominent competitive advantage in ‘theming’ and marketing post-modern Vienna.