Four centuries of translocal development in cities and regions in Northwest Germany

Abstract

This paper analyses how the fates of different peripheral localities (Emsland, Gütersloh, and Lippe in Germany) were linked to the outside world in the course of the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. In the first centuries, these localities' translocal relations with the world economy were dominated by relations with the Netherlands. Later the German context became more important for these translocal relations and development. But this paper shows that there are underlying continuities in local developments from the era before the rise of the nation states through to the current era of relative de-nationalisation and globalisation. This paper shows that local development very much depends on the local ability to ‘link up’ with development corridors, sometimes through seasonal labour migration, but also through trade and other relations. Long-term development trajectories also show how local autonomy can obstruct development. Regional development policies and private sector behaviour are also crucial. All these cases show that translocal development is regionally based and embedded in social and political contexts and decisions.