Many European countries are undergoing "metropolitan reform" which aims to endow urban territories with new modes of government. Examples, of these institutional innovations include the so-called Combined Authorities in England, the citta metropolitane in Italy, or the métropoles in France. This book addresses this theme and emerged from a two day seminar held by members of the AESOP Thematic Group on French and British Planning Studies in Tours, Val-de-Loire, in 2019. It approaches the phenomenon of metropolitan governance from a comparative perspective that mobilizes the international literature and case studies in Europe. It explores questions including: do these reforms follow the same initial objectives in different European countries? On which boundaries are new metropolitan institutions being established? What competences and capacity do new metropolitan institutions possess to address metropolitan issues? What are the relationships of new metropolitan institutions with existing municipal power? Do new metropolitan institutions manage to build inter-territoriality with the spaces that surround them?
These questions are explored in different contexts throughout the book which is likely to be of interest to researchers in town and regional planning, but also to local decision-makers (both within and beyond metropolitan areas). It also speaks to the international urban agenda and goals of sustainable and resilient cities under which large cities and their periurban rings are often seen simultaneously as a "problem" and a "solution" to the challenges of contemporary economic, environmental and social development.
The book is published in French and available at: http://www.urbanisme-puca.gouv.fr/a-paraitre-la-gouvernance-des-metropoles-et-des-a2075.html Demazière
