Abstract

Over the last decade the concept of governance has gained much popularity in social science debates and in public discourses generally. Although most scholars agree that what is referred to as governance is not completely new and that there is no unique defining criteria for what governance in the end means, its frequent use and its points of reference are best understood as a response to overall diverse, dynamic and complex societal changes. In order to explore the Viennese perspectives in the context of the newly emerging Centrope region, the usability and possible scope of the concept of governance is examined. In particular the role of regional governance is focussed on and an overview of different theoretical approaches is provided. As the scope of regional governance is by no means self-evident, in a further step different perspectives and implications of the concept of regions are examined.