Introduction

Born in 1936, Sven Illeris was educated as a geographer at the University of Copenhagen. The first half of his working life was devoted to practical activities in physical planning and regional policy. He worked primarily at the Danish Ministry of the Environment, but has also been connected with local governments and with the European Commission in Brussels. Being editor of the Danish planning journal Byplan for 17 years, he has wide experience in this field.
Sven Illeris has always been interested in research and - without losing contact with practice - he switched to an academic career in the second half of his working life, where he became professor (from 2004 emeritus) of geography at Roskilde University, Denmark. Among other distinctions, he was in 2008 awarded the "Commendation for Lifelong Achievement to Scholarship" of RESER (the European Association for Services Research). His main research interests are: The geography and economics of service activities, regional development, urban geography, the location of manufacturing industries (in particular: clusters), and the history of planning and geography.

Sven Illeris has a wide international orientation. He has worked and published in several countries, mainly in Western and Eastern Europe, and speaks a number of languages.