If Urban Regions are the Answer, What is the Question? Thoughts on the European Experience

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7810367
AutoresMariona Tomàs (0000-0003-1863-5330, Research Group on Local Studies (GREL, SGR 838), Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science, University of Barcelona Av. Diagonal, 690 08034 Barcelona Spain, autor correspondente)
Ano2015
Volume39
Fascículo2
Páginas382-389
Data de publicação2015-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0309-1317 • E-ISSN: 1468-2427
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-2427.12177
OpenAlexW1508495149
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas18

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

Cartography · Economic geography · Geography · Political mobilization · Political science · Politics · Regional development · Regional science · Regional studies · Social science · Sociology · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Urban Planning and Governance · Urban Studies · Urbanization and City Planning