{{Short description|High population and GDP corridor in Europe}} {{For|the fruit|Blue Java banana}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}} {{multiple issues| {{Original research|date=August 2011}} {{more citations needed|date=February 2016}} }}
thumb|upright=1.3|The Blue Banana The '''Blue Banana''' ({{Langx|nl|blauwe banaan}}; {{Langx|fr|banane bleue}}; {{Langx|de|Blaue Banane}}; {{Langx|it|banana blu}}), also known as the '''European Megalopolis''' or the '''Liverpool–Milan Axis''', is a discontinuous corridor of urbanization in Western and Central Europe, with a population of around 100 million.<ref name="bigthink">{{cite web | url=https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/the-true-heart-of-europe-nil-the-blue-banana/ | title=The Blue Banana - the True Heart of Europe | date=31 December 2014 | access-date=11 May 2022 | archive-date=3 June 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220603162732/https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/the-true-heart-of-europe-nil-the-blue-banana/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eu-partner.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9:the-blue-banana&catid=1:news&Itemid=16 |title=The European Blue Banana |publisher=Eu-partner.com |date=2011-03-03 |access-date=2013-09-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006102312/http://www.eu-partner.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9%3Athe-blue-banana&catid=1%3Anews&Itemid=16 |archive-date=6 October 2014}}</ref> Over time, the region has been referred to by several names, each reflecting its development and significance. Initially, French geographer Roger Brunet, as the leader of RECLUS (Network for the study of changes in locations and spatial units), described the area as 'the European Backbone', which depicted an urban corridor extending from Liverpool to Milan.<ref name="Brunet1989">{{cite book |first=Roger |last=Brunet |year=1989 |title=Les villes europeénnes: Rapport pour la DATAR |publisher=RECLUS |location=Montpellier |isbn=978-2-11-002200-4 |language=fr |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/90320833/Roger-Brunet-1989-Les-villes-europeennes-RECLUS-DATAR |access-date=4 March 2018 |archive-date=8 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208042111/https://www.scribd.com/document/90320833/Roger-Brunet-1989-Les-villes-europeennes-RECLUS-DATAR |url-status=live }}</ref>
Characterized by significant industrialization and urbanization, this area has attracted numerous public and private enterprises since the early post-war period, prompting researchers and academics to investigate the factors behind its remarkable development within Europe.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Capoani, L.; Bortoletto, G.; Fratini, S.; Van Veen, V.; Imbesi, C.|title=The Genesis and Evolution of the Blue Banana Region|journal=History of Economic Thought and Policy|volume=2|issue=2|pages=5–45|date=2022|doi=10.3280/SPE2022-002001}}</ref> It stretches approximately from North West England through the English Midlands across Greater London to the European Metropolis of Lille, the Benelux states with the Dutch Randstad and the Flemish Diamond and along the German Ruhrgebiet, Rhineland, Southern Germany, Alsace-Moselle in France in the west and Switzerland (Basel and Zürich), Austria (Vorarlberg and Tyrol) to Northern Italy (Milan, Turin, and Genoa) in the south.<ref name="Gert">{{cite conference |author=Gert-Jan Hospers |year=2002 |title=Beyond the Blue Banana? Structural Change in Europe's Geo-Economy |conference=42nd EUROPEAN CONGRESS of the Regional Science Association Young Scientist Session – Submission for EPAINOS Award 27–31 August 2002 |location=Dortmund, Germany |url=http://www-sre.wu-wien.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa02/cd-rom/papers/210.pdf |access-date=2006-09-27 |archive-date=18 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200318171051/http://www-sre.wu-wien.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa02/cd-rom/papers/210.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Gert2">{{cite journal |author=Gert-Jan Hospers |year=2003 |title=Beyond the Blue Banana? Structural Change in Europe's Geo-Economy |url=http://www-sre.wu-wien.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa02/cd-rom/papers/210.pdf |journal=Intereconomics |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=76–85 |doi=10.1007/BF03031774 |s2cid=52214602 |access-date=5 March 2010 |archive-date=18 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200318171051/http://www-sre.wu-wien.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa02/cd-rom/papers/210.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
==History== thumb|upright=1.5|Population density in Europe in 1994, showing the highest density along the Blue Banana thumb|upright=1.5|European Union regions by GDP in percentage of the EU average, showing the wealthiest regions are concentrated in the Blue Banana.Light green - 30%; dark green - 99 %; light yellow - 100%; dark yellow - 180% and above. The French geographer Roger Brunet, who observed a division between "active" and "passive" spaces, developed the concept of a West European "backbone" in 1989. He made reference to an urban corridor of industry and services stretching from northern England to northern Italy.<ref name="Brunet1989"/> The name "Blue Banana" was dually coined by {{Interlanguage link|Jacques Chérèque|fr|Jacques Chérèque}}, and an artist adding a graphic to an article by Josette Alia in ''Le Nouvel Observateur''. The colour blue referred to either the flag of the European Community, or the blue collars of factory workers in the region.<ref name="JacobsBigThink">{{cite web |last1=Jacobs |first1=Frank |title=The Blue Banana - the True Heart of Europe |url=http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/the-true-heart-of-europe-nil-the-blue-banana |website=Big Think: Your Daily Microdose of Genius |date=31 December 2014 |publisher=The Big Think, Inc |access-date=4 March 2018 |archive-date=8 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308170336/http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/the-true-heart-of-europe-nil-the-blue-banana |url-status=live }}</ref>
Brunet saw the "European Backbone" as the development of historical precedents, e.g. trade routes, or as the consequence of an accumulation of industrial capital. In his analysis, Brunet excluded the Paris urban area and other French conurbations because of French economic insularity. His aim was a greater economic integration in Europe, but he felt that France had lost this connection by the 17th century as a result of its persecution of Huguenots and centralisation in Paris.<ref name="TaylorReuters">{{cite news|last1=Taylor|first1=Paul|title=No more Blue Banana, Europe's industrial heart moves east|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-industry-analysis/no-more-blue-banana-europes-industrial-heart-moves-east-idUSKBN0MB0AC20150315|publisher=Reuters|date=15 March 2015|access-date=4 March 2018|archive-date=4 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304172341/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-industry-analysis/no-more-blue-banana-europes-industrial-heart-moves-east-idUSKBN0MB0AC20150315|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="JacobsBigThink"/> Later versions do, however, include Paris.<ref name="TaylorReuters"/>
In 1991, in the context of a study on behalf of the European Commission in support of its Regional Policy, researchers criticized the idea of the Blue Banana as a desirable formation, but not an empirical reality, identifying it as the result of regional competition in Europe. Furthermore, their diagram of the Blue Banana had more of a curve, still including Northern Italy, but ending at Barcelona. It also included Paris, and had the Anglo-Scottish border as its northern stem.<ref name="Kunzmann&Wegener1991">{{cite journal |last1=Kunzmann |first1=Klaus R. |last2=Wegener |first2=Michael |title=The pattern of urbanization in Western Europe |journal=Ekistics |date=September 1991 |volume=350 |issue=350–351 |page=291 |pmid=12317364 |url=http://www.spiekermann-wegener.com/pub/pdf/Pattern_of_Urbanisation.pdf |access-date=4 March 2018 |archive-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215043537/http://www.spiekermann-wegener.com/pub/pdf/Pattern_of_Urbanisation.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> A study of the history of the Blue Banana as a concept refers to the commission's study as a mistaken rejection of the Blue Banana from Brunet's original conception. From the research on the commission's behalf, the Blue Banana represented a developed core at the expense of the periphery, whereas Brunet empirically viewed the Blue Banana as a region of development at Paris's periphery, beyond the French borders.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Faludi |first1=Andreas |title=The 'Blue Banana' Revisited |journal=European Journal of Spatial Development |date=March 2015 |volume=56 |url=http://www.nordregio.se/Global/EJSD/Refereed%20articles/Refereed_56.pdf |access-date=3 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125145550/http://www.nordregio.se/Global/EJSD/Refereed%20articles/Refereed_56.pdf |archive-date=25 January 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> There are also considerations for an economically strong European pentagon with its borders Paris, London, Hamburg, Munich and Milan, with development axes towards the east (Berlin, Prague, Trieste).<ref>Karl-Peter Schön: Einführung. Das Europäische Raumentwicklungskonzept und die Raumordnung in Deutschland. In: Bundesamt für Bauwesen und Raumordnung: Informationen zur Raumentwicklung, H. 3/4. Bonn: (2000).</ref>
==Shift of the Blue Banana== [[File:Blue Golden Green Bananas in Europe.svg|thumb|Blue, Golden, Green Bananas]] In recent years,{{When|date=November 2023}} the Blue Banana has been shifting north towards Germany, as industrialization draws in new populations towards the Northern European countries. Rapid urbanization led to an increase in slums and poverty stricken areas, which pushed European countries to implement new policies regarding urban renewal. Since the United Kingdom's Action for Cities, France's Reconquête Urbaine and Germany's Städtebauförderung have been put in place, these urbanization policies have built a stronger foundation and better utilized urban spaces.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Palomäki |first=Mauri |date=1991 |title=On the Possible Future West European Capital |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41145198 |journal=GeoJournal |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=257–267 |doi=10.1007/BF00189026 |jstor=41145198 |s2cid=189888460 |issn=0343-2521 |access-date=11 May 2022 |archive-date=11 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511221229/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41145198 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> These policies allow countries to expand further, economically, just as Germany has done. Other research by Capoani et al. (2023)<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Capoani|first1=L.|last2=Lakócai|first2=C.|last3=Imbesi|first3=C.|last4=Van Veen|first4=V.|title=Blue Banana dynamics and the perspective of its edges|journal=European Spatial Research and Policy|volume=31|issue=2|date=2024|doi=10.18778/1231-1952.31.2.02|url=https://doi.org/10.18778/1231-1952.31.2.02|doi-access=free|hdl=11089/55062|hdl-access=free}}</ref> examines the role of the UK and Northern Italy as peripheral regions within the Blue Banana, traditionally considered the economic core of Europe. The study compares these regions to central areas of the Blue Banana using indicators such as urbanisation, infrastructure, productivity, and competitiveness. While urbanisation and infrastructure metrics indicate continued integration into Europe's core, weaker economic performance in Northern Italy and the impacts of Brexit on the UK present significant challenges to the cohesion of the Blue Banana.
If current trends of urbanization continue, 72% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050.<ref>{{Cite journal | jstor=43631053 | last1=De Graaf | first1=Reinier | last2=Baird | first2=Laura | title=Megalopoli(tic)s | journal=Log | year=2014 | issue=32 | pages=108–116 }}</ref> This creates a situation where European countries need to take steps to improve their ability to deal with the number of people that will move into the area. As a consequence of the rapid increase of urbanization and an influx of people to cities, the banana is growing instead of shifting.
Due to urbanization, the Blue Banana has become larger in size, branching outwards in a star shape. Despite this, the Blue Banana still remains the core of the conurbation.<ref name="bigthink"/> Although the Blue Banana may not have the same shape it had decades ago, Europe's largest concentration of people, industry, money, and economic power lie within it.
==See also== {{Portal|Europe}} *Belt and Road Initiative *Demographics of Europe *Four Motors for Europe *Golden Banana * French Empty diagonal *List of metropolitan areas in the European Union by GDP *Northeast megalopolis – a similar region in the United States *Middle Francia *History of Burgundy *Kingdom of Burgundy *Burgundian Circle *Spanish Road *Rotten Banana – an economically depressed region of Denmark *Rhine–Alpine Corridor *Scandinavian–Mediterranean Corridor *Hajnal line
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Sources== *{{cite book |last1=Geza |first1=Tóth |last2=Nagy |first2=Zoltán |last3=Kincses |first3=Áron |title=European Spatial Structure |date=2014 |publisher=Lambert Academic Publishing |location=Saarbrücken |isbn=978-3-659-64559-4 |doi=10.13140/2.1.1560.2247}} *{{cite journal |url=http://www.mgm.fr/PUB/Mappemonde/M202/Brunet.pdf |title=Lignes de force de l'espace Européen |first=Roger |last=Brunet |language=fr |journal=Mappemonde |issue=2 |date=April 2002 |volume=66 |pages=14–19|doi=10.3406/mappe.2002.1759 |s2cid=250514671 }} *{{cite journal|first=L.|last=Capoani|first2=C.|last2=Lakócai|first3=C.|last3=Imbesi|first4=V.|last4=Van Veen|title=Blue Banana dynamics and the perspective of its edges|date=2024|journal=European Spatial Research and Policy|volume=31|issue=2|doi=10.18778/1231-1952.31.2.02|doi-access=free|hdl=11089/55062|hdl-access=free}}
{{Authority control}} {{Use British English|date=December 2024}}
Category:Economic regions of Europe Category:Demographics of Europe Category:Geographical neologisms Category:Metropolitan areas of the European Union Category:Urban studies and planning terminology