Oslo's waterfront and urban territory: dynamics of transformation
Its location at the end of a fjord has made Oslo the largest national infrastructure hub and Norway's most important industrial city and port. Nevertheless, with deindustrialisation, its roles as city capital and the centre of an increasingly more integrated region represent the most advanced state of the transformation of urban areas. One result of the social democratic economy was the strong centralisation of administrations and R&D. With an expanding knowledge economy, the urban centre is specialising. The paradigm of global competition between urban regions and the conviction that urban development and innovation are interdependent, is influencing national policies. The state is directly involved in the construction of a new image for the urban region: Fjord City. The new waterfront, however, represents just one element in an urban and regional system that is changing profoundly.