The Politics of City Regions in Comparative Perspective

An age of the urban regionalism has arrived. Postindustrial capitalism is evolving in ways that give renewed importance to city regions. New forms of economic interdependence, the rise of specialized flexible production, the spread of new technologies, and other factors are making the city region a prominent node in today’s globalized economy. Although governments at all levels have been responding to manage this reality, political intervention remains a contentious matter because regional economic development has unleashed new political tensions over governance. Some tensions arise from economic obstacles to regional political cooperation. Other tensions arise from the urban political process in city regions. Many political interests, including entire governments, oppose political collaboration necessary for regional governance because it threatens them with loss of power, status or wealth. The political forces favoring resistance at the local and metropolitan levels tend to differ in the North American and Western European contexts, however