New Regionalism and Metropolitan Governance in Practice: a Major Smart Growth Construction Project in the Waterloo Region - the Light Rapid Transit-Project (original) (raw)
Related papers
City-regions and city-regionalism
"Proofs of “City-regions and city-regionalism” for Anssi Paasi, John Harrison, Martin Jones (editors) Handbook on the Geographies of Regions and Territories, Edward Elgar Publishing..", 2018, 2018
Today, the terms city-region and city-regionalism are widely used by urban managers, planners, representatives of businesses associations and international organizations, real estate and property developers and state officials and politicians. These terms are not only catchwords in urban policy practices but also disclose the complex intertwining of contemporary urbanization, world economy and world politics. As such, they reveal much about the diverse ways in which the state and the economy are being spatially reconfigured, and also about the production of new state territorial formations at the city-region scale (Brenner 2004). As Harrison and Hoyler (2015a, p. 2) indicate, there is a great deal of 'buzz and appetite' amongst academics as well as state policymakers, consultants and planners about the rise of city regions and, in particular, megaregions (major agglomerations comprised of several metropolitan areas) as the primary sites of economic growth, planning and governance in the contemporary global economy. This new spatial policy imaginary manifests itself in, for instance, recent books suggesting that a world of 'connectography' (Khanna 2016) -a world of metropolitan and regional formations -has replaced the world of nation-state territories. This is a new world in which cities and their mayors are supposed to be better equipped to solve 'global problems' than is the case for the nation-state and sub-national state governments (Barber 2013).
Regional Studies Looking Backward, Looking Forward: The City Region of the Mid-21st Century
HALL P. Looking backward, looking forward: the city region of the mid-21st century, Regional Studies. Emerging as a serious tool of analysis in the United States around 1950, the city region concept was increasingly applied in a European context after 1980. Since 2000, it has evolved further with recognition of the polycentric Mega-City Region, first recognized in Eastern Asia, but now seen as an emerging urban form both in Europe and the United States. The paper speculates on the main changes that may impact on the growth and development of such complex urban regions in the first half of the 21st century, concluding that achieving the goal of polycentric urban development may prove more complex than at first it may seem.
Evolving structures and challenges of metropolitan regions
National Civic Review, 1994
Metropolitan regions, whether growing or declining, face serious strategic issues in the arenas of economic development, infrastructure, environmental protection, and social equity. While these issues contribute to the argument favoring regional governance, actual solutions with the capacity and legitimacy to work remain elusive.
If Urban Regions are the Answer, What is the Question? Thoughts on the European Experience
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH 39(2) · MARCH 2015
This essay contributes to the current debate in the field of critical urban and regional studies on the meanings of the ‘regional’ and the ‘urban’. From a political science perspective, we focus on the European case. Firstly, we argue that the conception of the regional scale is not the same in various languages and traditions. Regions in Europe carry meanings and connotations that are not always easy to translate without losing their specific histories. Secondly, our analysis of contemporary debates on the ‘regional’ in the field of urban studies reveals that both practitioners and academics consider the regional scale mainly as a functional space, as the space for economic competitiveness. However, urban regions are also to be regarded as spaces for social and political mobilization. I argue that the political dimension of the ‘regional’ deserves more attention and that further research needs to be undertaken in this respect.
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2019
I seek to provide an overview of the historical and geographical emergence of city-regions and to reflect on some of the debates that have arisen in regard to the theoretical status of these phenomena. I briefly describe the growth and spread of city-regions in the world since the mid-1950s and I consider how contemporary capitalism and globalization have fostered the development of this distinctive urban form. The internal organization of city-regions is then examined, with special reference to four generic outcomes, namely (a) aestheticized land-use intensification, (b) gentrification, (c) social polarization and informality, and (d) postsuburban landscapes. Issues of governance and policy are scrutinized and basic dilemmas of political coordination in city-regions are described. The argument ends with an evaluative review of certain critiques of the city-region idea in the current academic literature.
City-regions in Europe: The potentials and the realities
Town Planning Review, 2007
In recent debates about future urban development challenges the city-region area gets growing attention as this is considered as being very important from the point of view of economic competitiveness and environmental and social sustainability aspects of urban development, as well. The aim of the paper is to discuss the city-region issue with some conclusions to be drawn from the perspective of housing markets and housing policies.
Mobilising Regions: Territorial Strategies for Growth, 2013
ABSTRACT: What this paper is trying to highlight is how City-Regions are being actively constructed (Harrison, 2012), where they are being mobilised in support of, or in opposition to, particular territorial development models and strategies. Hence, this paper contributes to debates about the meaning and the understanding of the dynamics of actively constructed term of the “City-Region”, by proposing an Analytical Systemic Framework after reviewing the literature of the main key authors. The Analytical Systemic Framework called “The Future of the City-Regions” (FCR) consists of 5-Systems: URBS (Urban System), CYBER (Relational System), CIVITAS (Socio-Cultural System), POLIS (Socio-Political System) and DEMOS (Democratic System).