The Special Session "Beyond Fragmentation: New Institutions and Strategies for Urban-Rural Linkages" will take place at the 2026 RSA Annual Conference in Gothenburg. The session is an activity of the RSA Research Network Bridging Governance Gaps in City-Regions and is organised by Alois Humer (TU Wien), Simin Yan (Chongqing University) and Lukas Häfner (University of Kassel). Core questions of the session include: What challenges arise from administrative and socio-economic fragmentation for the governance of urban–rural linkages? And which strategies and policy frameworks strengthen the governance of urban–rural linkages across fragmented territories? The Department of Economics of Urban and Regional Development will participate in the Special Session with two presentations: Florian Albrecht on "Navigating Agglomeration Pressures and Emerging Inequalities in Interlinked Metropolitan Regions: Governance Responses in Rhine-Main and Rhine-Neckar" and Lukas Häfner on "Working Across Borders: Local Authorities and Inter-Municipal Settlement Development in Germany".

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