Headline: Der Münchner Handlungsraumansatz: Transformation durch agile Verwaltung gestalten

Cities are faced with the challenge of aligning their administrative actions with complex socio-ecological transformation processes. The City of Munich has developed an approach to meet this challenge with strategic action spaces or opportunity areas (Handlungsraumansatz). Through a strategic prioritisation of geographic areas in the city and agile, interdisciplinary cooperation structures, the action space approach enables a constructive moderation of complex interests, the acquisition of innovative development and research projects and creates synergy effects between administration and civil society. The present analysis examines the potentials of the approach and presents recommendations for its further development in Munich. At the same time, the analysis provides empirical evidence for debates on the role of strategic planning spaces and 'soft spaces' in sustainable urban development.