Large cities are the example and symbol, but also the power-centers and showplaces of a globalised, modern way of life. Smaller cities in the shadows of the great metropolises have come under pressure. Many of them are struggling with profiling and modernization in order to emerge as winners of the competition for more attractive locations and hope to assert themselves between or next to the metropolises. The editors analyse active developments and positioning and on the basis of examples and new perspectives attempt to portrait these „regiopolises“.