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Copyright of African & Mediterranean Journal of Architecture & Urbanism (AMJAU) is the property of Ecole Nationale d'Architecture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

L’article interroge une tendance de l’architecture qui a pris un relief tout à fait remarquable à la fin du XXe siècle : celle du recours à l’architecture dite iconique associée à des starchitectes dans une perspective de mise en visibilité et de compétitivité des villes. Dans ce sens et dans un contexte de plus en plus mondialisé, le phénomène commence à prendre une certaine ampleur au Maroc, il marque une transformation de la ville marocaine par le projet, rompant ainsi avec les paradigmes antérieurs de fabrication de la ville et annonçant un virage historique qu’il convient de saisir. Rejetant une approche trop étroitement architecturale, l’article se propose d’en analyser les origines et les effets urbains, culturels, sociaux et politiques. De manière précise, il questionne l’émergence de l’architecture iconique au Maroc, son processus de mise en œuvre et la posture de ses maîtres d’œuvres, et ce à travers deux projets culturels iconiques ; le théâtre CasArts et le théâtre Mohammed VI, conçus respectivement par Christian De Portzamparc et ZahaHadid. Ces deux édifices surviennent dans un contexte où l’édifice iconique se pose comme enjeu urbain dans les deux villes de Casablanca et Rabat, villes en quête de métropolisation et de rayonnement, notamment par la culture. De l’œuvre vers l’icône, les deux édifices sont étudiés comme pensée intellectuelle des starchitectes en appréhendant la notion de l’architecture iconique, de la conception à la perception en passant par l’approche de la contextualisation de l’œuvre et son impact sur son environnement urbain, l’image qu’elle offre et sa représentation. Des outils diversifiés sont interpelés pour analyser les édifices dans leur interaction urbaine et sociétale faisant appel aux contacts directs, au numérique et aux cartes mentales. D’une iconicité fabriquée, les deux présentent l’incarnation du projet iconique plus ou moins perçu comme tel. Cependant, les deux œuvres abordent des postures différenciées ; du complexe urbain qui prend en compte l’espace urbain et le reprend à l’intérieur, à l’édifice spectacle qui joue le rôle d’ornement urbain ; d’une architecture répondant à un programme à une architecture sculpture, ils se distinguent déjà, l’un par sa façade habitée et l’autre par son enveloppe. Leur contenant devance leur contenu, ils dépassent leur rôle utilitaire pour renvoyer une image prédéfinie d’internationalisation, de modernité et de puissance.

Algiers is experiencing spatial and structural changes in its economy, as a result of globalization working in the world's metropolises, targeting the tertiary activities of the new global economy. The metropolis of Algeria, concentrates: population, activities and wealth, at the head of its network at three scales: urban, regional and national providing an international position in the Mediterranean basin on its south shore. Gateway to Globalization, Algiers is transforming the economic organization of its national urban system. This new tertiary sector concerns higher services, and calls for metropolitan functions (high level) and attaches to reinforce the higher level of the urban hierarchy. Our approach is based on GIS to capture changes; territorial and metropolitan movements (overconcentration and deconcentration) take place between central and peripheral neighborhoods, producing a new organization, which is the global metropolisation, linked to economic internationalization, the official beginning of which dates from 1997.

Metropolisation is a process that includes the consequences of global phenomena transferred to the level of metropolitan areas, being the result of various legal and social processes, which is best illustrated by the example of French and Polish institutional solutions. France has been chosen to perform the analysis on due to the uniqueness of its legal regulations in the field of the issues covered in the study (e.g., the institution of metropolitan poles [le pôle métropolitain]). The possibility of creating a metropolis in its current form has existed in France since 2010, but the legislative bodies are still introducing changes to strengthen the legal position of this institution. The French legal order continues to reinforce the role and importance of the metropolis as a unit of inter-municipal cooperation that can take over the department and region’s essential competences to manage the metropolitan area more effectively. In a sense, France is becoming a model of organisation and functioning for contemporary metropolises in Poland, which are beginning to emerge as a certain remedy to the effectiveness issue of performing supra-regional tasks. This article provides an analysis of the law as it stands for legal regulations concerning the organisation and functioning of metropolises both in France and Poland in a comparative and legal context, with the aim of making postulates regarding the choice of a right formula for performing tasks in contemporary local governments.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the place of the Cohesion Policy (CP) within a multiscalar urban policy constellation that shapes metropolisation dynamics. While there is broad agreement the CP seeks to foster metropolisation at regional scale and above, how this ties into its action at city scale and below in specific urban contexts is not always well understood. Through a mixed-methods case study of the Romanian city of Iași informed by a brennerian perspective, three main questions are tackled: in a given city, does the CP exert a coherent influence upon metropolisation dynamics? How does it weave-into place-specific metropolisation dynamics? How does it relate to other elements of the relevant governance constellation? This paper finds that, while the CP does not have a very coherent action at city scale, it enables local actors’ own agendas. Those agendas are oriented towards metropolisation and locational policies broadly compatible with the CP’s priorities, because local actors are embedded in and channelled by a multi-scalar policy context of which the CP is a part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the dynamic of spatial change has been increasing, influenced by processes linked to the transformation of traditional industrial regions into metropolitan areas. This is related to changes in function and administrative status, but above all to spatial changes. Examples of cities experiencing dynamic landscape changes from coal mining cities to modern metropolises can be found in the former coal basins of Central Europe – the Upper Silesian Metropolis in Poland and the Ostrava-Karviná Region in the Czechia. This study analysed the transformation of the landscape on the basis of land cover data from the years 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2018. The index of landscape change and the index of change of individual cover types were calculated, and on the basis of these indices the main processes responsible for the transformation of the landscape were determined. In the two study areas, similar changes in the landscape are taking place but at different rates. The main processes changing the landscape are suburbanization, reindustrialization and agricultural land abandonment. In space, they are manifested in an increase in the areas of residential, commercial and service development, the densification of the road network, and an increase in land allocated for new industrial plants. At the same time, the acreage of agricultural land (mainly arable fields, orchards and plantations but also open landscapes) is decreasing.

Copyright of African & Mediterranean Journal of Architecture & Urbanism (AMJAU) is the property of Ecole Nationale d'Architecture and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Algiers is experiencing spatial and structural changes in its economy, as a result of globalization working in the world's metropolises, targeting the tertiary activities of the new global economy. The metropolis of Algeria, concentrates: population, activities and wealth, at the head of its network at three scales: urban, regional and national providing an international position in the Mediterranean basin on its south shore. Gateway to Globalization, Algiers is transforming the economic organization of its national urban system. This new tertiary sector concerns higher services, and calls for metropolitan functions (high level) and attaches to reinforce the higher level of the urban hierarchy. Our approach is based on GIS to capture changes; territorial and metropolitan movements (overconcentration and deconcentration) take place between central and peripheral neighborhoods, producing a new organization, which is the global metropolisation, linked to economic internationalization, the official beginning of which dates from 1997. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the now thirty-year-long history of the construction of a formal dimension of the metropolisation process in Italy, the dynamics of administrative reorganisation triggered by Law 56/2014 saw the emergence of the metropolitan city as an element of rupture in the relations between territorial levels. These dynamics are explored through the Roman case, in which the process of institutionalisation of the metropolitan city presents numerous criticalities with respect to the central city’s value as capital, the organisational structure within the metropolitan territory, the relationship with the Latium Region and the relationship with the State regarding European programming.

The urban-industrial growth of the city of Querétaro (Mexico) corresponds to the process of economic globalisation and the logic of financial capital. The article reports on the logic behind the construction of industrial parks and 'housing lots' or estates as closed and privatised spaces, both components of neo-liberal metropolisation. On the basis of the research work carried out in the La Pradera housing lots, the logic of real estate capital and the production of conflicts that challenge the processes of the precarisation of life as well as the excluding logics of the real estate market are visible. The demand for access to green spaces and public services on a continuous basis establishes the debate to concretise the public character and the desire to live differently from the impositions of the market.

Based on topics of research examining how metropolisation processes affect the areas surrounding metropolitan centres and change the locations of metropolitan functions in urban regions, this article examines: (i) how pronounced the process of the regionalisation of metropolitan functions is; (ii) in which sub‐areas of a surrounding region the regionalisation of metropolitan functions can be observed and (iii) which places are anchor points of metropolitan regionalisation. The regionalisation processes are studied using a municipal‐level dataset of metropolitan functions from German urban regions. The findings indicate that centrifugal forces distribute metropolitan functions across the surrounding region around one or more metropolitan core cities, and that this is, for the most part, linked to medium‐sized cities and to the complementary areas of metropolitan centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the fall of communism, the big cities of Central Europe have been included in the international metropolitan network, and their economic performance has improved significantly. Based on that, it can be asserted that the whole region is undergoing a process of metropolisation, which may be manifested by a focus of development in the limited areas of metropolises. Therefore this paper aims to present the results of a closer examination of this process in Central Europe. It is based on a comparative analysis of the metropolises in relation to their countries in terms of economic performance. A taxonomic approach based on Hellwig’s development pattern is adopted. The available Eurostat data (NUTS 3 level) on a range of socio‑economic characteristics is used. The study results show that the economic performance of Central European metropolises is relatively closer to Western Europe’s cities than the countries’ non‑metropolitan parts. Highlighting development issues in Central Europe from the spatial‑metropolitan point of view is the paper’s added value.

Copyright of On the W@terfront is the property of University of Barcelona, Centre de Recerca POLIS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Postindustrial agglomerations struggling with image deficits and environmental problems are looking for new development paths to take. One of these paths can bring about the development of business tourism, including the industry of the organisation of meetings and events. The unique and attractive character of the place can favour taking such a direction. The business tourism sector can therefore become an instrument contributing to the sustainable metropolisation of the city by building up its position in the global network of flows. The development of the meetings and events sector allows, therefore, for a change of image, for a re-evaluation of endogenous resources, including those relating to the industrial past, and for tapping into the unlimited resources of the global network. Increased attention in this network may lead to an influx of more events, and of investors as well. Replacing heavy industry with an enlarged service sector and modern industry based on flexible and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises fosters sustainable development. The meetings and events industry can become a tool for sustainable development and the promotion of its ideas, related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The trajectory outlined above seems very promising. However, to some extent, it is just a hypothesis. The author undertakes to test it on the example of Katowice, a former industrial city which has decided to follow the route outlined above to become a city that hosts many events, including the COP24 summit in 2018. In the article, the author presents empirical research studies whose authors tried to determine whether the path the city has chosen has a real impact on its image and development. The author also deals with the question of the sustainability of such a development path and the conditions for its self-support in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Until recently, spaces of low-density (especially rural spaces) were considered as being secondary, at best as "reservoirs" of resources feeding. Today, this vision is increasingly criticized. On the one hand, the environmental, social and human damages caused by intensive urbanization become more obvious. On the other hand, spaces of low density are more and more seen as territories by their own, offering high quality and more human working and living environments. Indeed, these spaces become more attractive for many urbans seeking more healthy and quiet places. This doesn't mean, however, that large cities and metropolises are to be significantly rejected or abandoned. Our hypothesis is rather that the real challenge is to design new forms of territorial organization and governance strongly based on solidarity, cooperation and cohesion principles at the regional level. The article shows that such new territorial approach is possible and already observable in various regions, especially the Centre-Val de Loire region (CVL) in France on which we focus more specifically. Using various innovative planning, institutional and more specific contractual instruments, such as "reciprocal contracts", this region is engaged in a regional development strategy recognizing the crucial importance of rural and other low-density territories and their diversity for a more balanced, cohesive, innovative and sustainable regional development "for all". The suggests that a new "paradigm" for regional development is probably emerging, which devotes a higher recognition and role to low-density spaces thanks to a more attention devoted to solidarity and cohesion endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Les stratégies de développement territorial durable (DTD), tant aux échelles régionales que locales, nécessitent des visions à long terme du devenir de leurs territoires de mise en œuvre. L’action publique, locale ou régionale, en vue d’un développement plus cohésif et répondant aux principes de la durabilité implique une démarche prospective dépassant la simple prévision économique et statistique, de façon à prendre en compte la pluralité des avenirs possibles. Dans cet article, en restituant les principaux résultats d’un exercice de prospective concernant les incidences de la métropolisation sur la cohésion régionale à l’horizon 2050 au sein de la Région Centre-Val de Loire (France), nous entendons illustrer tout l’apport et les limites d’une telle démarche dans la conception d’une stratégie régionale de DTD. A cette fin, on s’appuie donc sur les travaux de prospective menés au sein du Conseil Economique, Social et Environnemental de la Région Centre-Val de Loire (CESER CVL) pour analyser les conséquences à long terme de l’institutionnalisation des métropoles de Tours et d’Orléans sur l’organisation territoriale de la Région, non sans avoir au préalable rappelé les principes et méthodes de la prospective territoriale.

Embodying for a long time the image of an administrative capital where the functionary dominate, where the urban setting is aging and where quality of life is declining, the city of Rabat has recently embarked on a frantic race to reinvent a new image: a modern, innovative and qualitative image. In order to achieve this, several projects and programs of development, embellishment and construction, has been initiated with a common feature which is greatness (large theater, high towers, large stations, large arteries, new centralities, etc.). This greatness aspect is visible through the importance of the areas involved, the volumes and the shapes designed, the modes of transport developed, the means and resources deployed in add to the promotion of architectural signatures of the renowned architects, and the modes of governance and project management. Henceforth, Rabat shows its ambition as a city of culture, as a green city and as a “city of light”. The time of Rabat, as administrative city, is over. However, the image displayed and publicized seems controversial compared to the reality of certain urban spaces, often with high heritage value, that develop on the margins of programs and projects initiated. Real deficits are observed in terms of basic equipment and services, in terms of transport network and in terms of urban coherence and social cohesion. Everything contributes to an urban image with two facets: one more qualitative, more modern and more elitist, while the other is more spontaneous, more vulnerable and more devalued. Faced with this identity transition and this double temporality, what image and identity do we want for Rabat? What vocations do we claim for this city which aspires to become a national and international metropolis? What developments should be advocated for a capital with such a rich and diversified history? What relationship can be established between the local identity and the global identity of the city? How does the citizen apprehend his living spaces in the face of such universal urban model, where social connections as well as the spatial relationship mutate towards new practices? These questions will be enlightened through the confrontation of major projects underway and urban realities, through the analysis of the new urban model which is universal, modern and generating a new image and a new urban identity, as well as through the impact of these major projects both on the urban landscape and quality of life. It’s with these considerations in mind that this paper is drawn up: « Rabat, a metropolitan city », between displayed image and reality of image and identity.

L’intervention d’une institution métropolitaine peut-elle remédier à une offre de soins lacunaire pour ses habitants ? Cette interrogation guide l’analyse de l’action nouvelle d’Orléans Métropole en matière de santé. Face au nombre insuffisant de médecins pour couvrir les besoins de la population, les maires interviennent par la création de maisons de santé pluridisciplinaire. Vu l’ampleur des besoins, une réponse strictement communale s’avère néanmoins insuffisante. L’intervention métropolitaine semble légitimée pour coordonner, arbitrer et réguler l’action publique locale. Toutefois, les compétences de la métropole ne sont que partiellement exploitées. En premier lieu, Orléans Métropole a une capacité d’action limitée faute de fondements juridiques explicites pour asseoir sa légitimité et bénéficier d’outils performants. En second lieu, la métropole est à la fois concurrencée à l’échelle extra-métropolitaine par la région et les territoires adjacents, souhaitant échapper à toute satellisation, et à l’échelle intramétropolitaine par les communes membres, souhaitant préserver leur autonomie.

India is one of the fastest growing and developing economies as well as societies of the world. An evident consequence of this trend is urbanisation, which poses an immense challenge for the population and political decision-makers of the country, and it is one of the most important social geographical topical research trends concerning India. First, this paper introduces the general urbanisation trends experienced in sovereign India in the 1951-2011 period, in the framework of an analysis of statistical data recorded in censuses, indicating the volume and trends of urbanisation. This step is followed by the demonstration of the structural features and diverse development paths of the million-plus agglomerations (i.e. agglomerations with at least a million inhabitants), connected to one of its main characteristics depicted by this introductory summary: metropolisation. This also allows the demonstration of the differences between the statistical and functional interpretation of metropolitan areas. Using the quantitative categories defined during the analysis, the authors classify the metropolises of India in terms of types of urbanisation through cluster analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of VertigO is the property of La Revue Electronique en Sciences de l'Environnement VertigO and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The post-Fordist and post-socialist transition had a significant impact on the development of cities in East Central Europe. One of the most spectacular processes in the development of postsocialist cities has been the transformation of the inner areas and outskirts of the urban regions. In the inner areas, after the regime change, urban regeneration gained momentum and thanks to the prevailing neoliberal urban policies almost without exception triggered gentrification processes in the neighbourhoods. Outside the administrative boundaries of the city, in the agglomeration zone and in the more remote areas of the urban region, suburbanisation and urban sprawl have determined the development process. As a consequence, the previously compact urban fabric of post-socialist cities slowly disintegrated and cities became more and more fragmented. The aim of this theoretical study is to explore the most important processes of urban transformation in the post-Fordist era. We briefly introduce the theoretical background of metropolisation, suburbanization and urban sprawl, as well as the main characteristics of commuting and land use. The role of urban regeneration and fragmentation in the urban fabric will be highlighted as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metropolisation leads to the physical, functional, and symbolic integration of urban natural areas. In this context, can metropolitan mountains be considered vast public parks in their own right, adapting to new scales of functionality within their territory? To tackle this question, we carried out a questionnaire-based survey among local residents and users of Sainte-Victoire mountain in the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, France. Its results highlight the existence of proximity-based perceptions and practices towards Sainte-Victoire. In this respect, the mountain possesses certain characteristics that are associated with intra-urban green spaces. However, it differs from intra-urban green spaces in that its users' patterns of frequentation can be categorised as exceptional and episodic, and that access to and specific uses of it strongly depend on owning a car. This article therefore calls for an environmental management strategy that better coordinates emblematic urban natural spaces, such as Sainte-Victoire, with other metropolitan green spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Economic Research is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Since most research on economic metropolisation has until now concentrated on "high added value" workers on both sides of the border, little place is left for analysis either of the less valued categories in the process of metropolisation, or of the diversity of jobs within the regional labour markets. What, then, is the position of less favoured social categories in the evolution of cross-border metropolises over the last decades, when compared with managers or other liberal professions? To answer this question, a case study is carried out here on the cross-border commuters in the Lorraine Region (France), who participate in great numbers in the metropolisation of Luxembourg, by comparing them to those who work in France. The objective of this article is to give an account of the spatiotemporal evolution of the principal social classes among the cross-border commuters, based on the French population censuses. These databases, from 1968 to the present day, are comparable both in the time and space. The results confirm that a cross-border metropolis of Luxembourg has been formed, notably since the 1990s, by a substantial increase of highly qualified cross-border commuters, as well as by an augmentation of the less qualified workforce during this period: thus, in the Region of Lorraine, even in 2013, the share of the cross-border working class (commuting to Luxembourg) remains greater than that of the working class within France. Moreover, complex links exist in the phenomenon of metropolisation between historical social segregations and specifically metropolitan segregations in terms of the socio-spatial organisation of the territory in question: for example, the secondary urban centres of the French metropolitan area, such as Thionville or Metz, serve as a residential reservoir for the most highly qualified cross-border commuters, especially when this type of workforce has already been observed in these agglomerations in the past. Primary results point to the need to learn more about the conditions of different residential trajectories, as well as about the social status of different workforces on each side of the border.

Rennes 2020 municipal election highlights the difficulty of integrating neighborhood activists, who are engaged in forms of piecemeal resistance to local urban planning projects, into an antigrowth coalition. Several factors explain this difficulty: the internal tensions between the members of this coalition, whose goals are partially different; the reluctance of neighborhood activists to get involved in politics; the political alliance system and the voting results which constrain the antigrowth entrepreneurs to reach a compromise with the outgoing mayor, despite the disapproval of the neighborhood activists.

Until recently, the terms “metropolis” and “metropolitanisation” were mainly used by academics and officials involved in the government of large urban areas. There are now signs that these phenomena are being taken up and politicised by social movements. In this special issue, the authors analyse some examples of such movements. In the introduction, we first situate the issue of metropolitan mobilisations within the literature analysing urban social movement. Based on this body of works and the articles gathered in the issue, we then formulate a number of cross-cutting findings, hypotheses and research perspectives. These relate to the adaptation of forms and repertoires of mobilisation to the characteristics of metropolitanisation; to the cognitive and discursive resources provided by metropolitan semantics and imaginaries for universalising the cause of movements; to the socially selective attributes of the main actors involved; and to the role of political opportunity structures that contribute to the metropolitan re-scaling of social movements in France. Finally, we examine the effects of metropolitan social movements on local public action, and vice versa.

Metropolisation is today a central object of academic criticism and social movements. Associated with the evolutions of capitalism, it would tend to become a major axis in the denunciation of the neoliberalization of cities. In Lyon, and more particularly in La Guillotière, a neighborhood undergoing profound transformations, in a context of affirmation of the metropolis as an institution, several local urban struggles oppose the social, environmental and material consequences of metropolisation. These mobilizations contribute to the dynamics of the reappropriation of urban spaces, the relocalization of politics and the politicization of the metropolitan scale. They trace two paths for political transformation on a local scale: invest the metropolitan institution in order to politicize it by imposing an alternative to the neo-liberal hegemony; relocalize politics on a neighborhood scale, by reconquering the common in the metropolitan space.

In this paper we investigate a specific type of protest against metropolises: cohousing and everyday practices in rural spaces, away from urban centers. We refer to an ethnographic study on several rural eco-cohousing places in order to show that they can exist both as refuges and contentious spaces for individuals who are discontent with their life in existing metropolises. We cannot immediately assign critical and political intentions to the inhabitants that we have met. Actually, they do not explicitly protest against metropolises or metropolisation, contrary to some contemporary urban social movements. However, their biographical trajectories as well as their everyday practices indicate a choice that go beyond a simple residential move. We explain that this peculiar style of protest corresponds to what has already been theorised as prefigurative politics. It implies both a depoliticisation of usual contentious politics and a politicisation of domestic spaces.

The geographical distribution of scientific activities in France is the subject of debate, between the proponents of increasing metropolitanization, and those of recent deconcentration. This article contributes to this debate by focusing on the human resources dimension of scientific activities, and by providing results concerning researchers in companies. Based on statistical data on French territory, it shows that the relative deconcentration of private scientific employment which took place at the end of the 20th century at the national level is in fact limited to a few regions slightly reducing the essential role of Ile-de-France. What is more, it ran out of steam at the start of the 21st century. More specifically, a study of the three regions benefiting from this devolution shows that the metropolises are reaping the bulk of the effects. Neither the movement of researchers in companies, nor the regional policies for financing company R&D appear to be able to counter this trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Large Technological System (LTS) is a central concept in the epistemologies of Action-Network Theories (ant), related with poststructuralist epistemologies, and an important tool for the analysis of territorial systems. In this paper, we will use the lts concept to examine the hydrologic system of the Metropolitan Area of Bogotá, making emphasis on three aspects: the natural structure, the technological complex, and the normative framework. The goal was to explore the metropolitan geopolitics of water use in La Sabana de Bogotá and the particularities in the water governance, highlighting the incidence of municipalism and the interaction of a wide group of private, governmental, and civic actors. It was examined the physical infrastructure provided by the Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Bogotá (eab-esp) that works as a quasi-monopoly actor in water management as well as their interaction with the highly autonomous municipalities. Other actors such as the real estate, floriculture, mining, and dairy activities was included in the analysis. The report gives special attention to the highly complex relationships between them and how they work in a complex and multiscale normative framework. The text concludes emphasizing the different challenges of water governance in a context of rapid metropolisation, complexing economic relations and climate and environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two strategic plans for Algiers: SNAT 2030, and PDAU 2015–2035 that seek to enhance its competitiveness to keep pace with other Mediterranean cities have been approved. A metropolisation process, as it is politically called, that would market the capital through a series of megaprojects is taking place. Such a tendency paradoxically counteracts previous planning instructions that strived for the control of its spatial expansion and avoid the scenarios of other underdeveloped megacities. This study examines the urban and environmental costs of such a policy that would lead to an unmanageable megacity, and thus, draws this tragic scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marseille is broadly considered a postindustrial city in crisis, which has failed to achieve a functional reconversion and a change of narrative in the age of globalization. Over the last two decades, however, processes of regionalized and integrated metropolisation have had an impact on the city’s urban renaissance prospects. This paper identifies three central projects, which symbolically represent and concretely articulate different axes of Marseille’s metropolisation processes: Euroméditerranée (1995-*); The European Capital of Culture Marseille-Provence 2013; and the institutional creation of the Métropole d'Aix-Marseille-Provence. This paper proposes to approach metropolisation as a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Drawing on the three aforementioned cases, we analyze the different territorial-spatial scales affected, as well as the various geographic scales of governance stakeholders involved. Reflecting on their scopes of impact respectively, the aim of the study is to investigate the challenges and opportunities of multi-scalar metropolisation for Aix-Marseille-Provence, and to discuss to what extent this conflictual plurality might (not) be promising for a consensual metropolitan integration in the future.

Postindustrial agglomerations struggling with image deficits and environmental problems are looking for new development paths to take. One of these paths can bring about the development of business tourism, including the industry of the organisation of meetings and events. The unique and attractive character of the place can favour taking such a direction. The business tourism sector can therefore become an instrument contributing to the sustainable metropolisation of the city by building up its position in the global network of flows. The development of the meetings and events sector allows, therefore, for a change of image, for a re-evaluation of endogenous resources, including those relating to the industrial past, and for tapping into the unlimited resources of the global network. Increased attention in this network may lead to an influx of more events, and of investors as well. Replacing heavy industry with an enlarged service sector and modern industry based on flexible and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises fosters sustainable development. The meetings and events industry can become a tool for sustainable development and the promotion of its ideas, related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The trajectory outlined above seems very promising. However, to some extent, it is just a hypothesis. The author undertakes to test it on the example of Katowice, a former industrial city which has decided to follow the route outlined above to become a city that hosts many events, including the COP24 summit in 2018. In the article, the author presents empirical research studies whose authors tried to determine whether the path the city has chosen has a real impact on its image and development. The author also deals with the question of the sustainability of such a development path and the conditions for its self-support in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue d'Économie Régionale & urbaine is the property of Librairie Armand Colin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The region of Tangier is considered as Morocco’s dynamic economic corner. It is the receptacle of infrastructure and development projects supported by the Moroccan state and international investors. The most impressive project is the Tanger-Med port with its panoply of free zones. The opening for foreign capital and international exchange notably modified Tangier’s connectivity with the rest of the world and in particular with western Africa. The latter is often also one of the targets of investors’ strategies using Tangier as a transregional hub. The city is (re)developing into an international metropolis, a “gate to Africa”. We formulate the hypothesis that Tangier (a secondary city) is transforming through three interlinked, relatively concomitant, but distinct processes : a metropolisation process that can be read in the diversification and upgrading of Tangier’s economy ; a globalisation process around Tanger-Med, which is relentless, but not unprecedented and inscribes the region in the international division of production processes ; and a regionalisation process that integrates it into transnational and urban economic networks, with links as far as West Africa. These processes under study have to be interpreted in the light of regional and African (re-)orientations exhibited since King Mohamed VI acceded to the throne. The example of Tangier illustrates the interlocking between globalisation and regionalisations serving international and liberal economic development.

The concentration of the worldwide economic, financial and political activities in a few international metropolitan areas seems to continue. Cities that manage to be part of these networks experience generally an economic growth. But cities that fall out of these connections struggle to stay attractive for investments, jobs and people. This applies especially to medium and small size cities without a particular historic, economic or natural environment, that let them stand out. But also inside international metropolitan areas the advantages of being part of the worldwide network are not distributed equally. The metropolitan centre becomes more attractive and at the same time financially inaccessible for the majority of the population. While the high-income population stays, the low-income population is pushed out in the peripheral cities. These cities risk to concentrate an economic and social fragile population, without possessing the necessary financial means to support these households. A metropolitan and even national adjustment between the cities and territories becomes necessary. The following text describes the situation of three cities in the Paris metropolitan area.

Political changes that followed after 1989 led to the creation of local selfgovernment in Poland. As a result, a municipality, a county and a voivodship selfgovernment were established. In the course of these reforms, however, the problem of the system of metropolitan areas, and thus their management, has not been resolved. Making metropolisation in Poland, understood as creating special solutions for metropolitan areas in the form of large urban agglomerations, that are facilities of various networks (transport, scientific, economic) and development centers, is not satisfactory. Initiatives to ensure management of metropolitan areas have been undertaken for a long time, but still without achieving sufficient results. In 2015, the Act on metropolitan unions was adopted, whose provisions constituted the basis for creating metropolitan unions regardless of the country's area. On the basis of its provisions, however, no metropolitan union was established. In return, there was undertaken the work on the subsequent act in analyzed area - this time concerning only the area of the Silesian voivodship. The purpose of the article is to analyze provisions of the act on metropolitan union in the Silesian voivodship, aiming at determination of effectiveness and sufficient nature of these provisions in the area of metropolitan areas management in Poland. The regulations regarding only one, though undoubtedly the largest urban agglomeration in Upper Silesia, which is currently the case, seems insufficient to assume that the problem of providing a special system and rules for management of metropolitan areas has been solved.

Copyright of Bitácora Urbano/Territorial is the property of Bitacora Urbano/Territorial and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Bitácora Urbano/Territorial is the property of Bitacora Urbano/Territorial and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revue d'Économie Régionale & urbaine is the property of Librairie Armand Colin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

European cities may be regarded as having formed a system of well-interconnected entities over many centuries. The peculiarities of their hierarchical functional organization and territorial patterns have been extensively analysed. This study details a few contributions from the science of complex systems meant to formalize this knowledge. This includes a representation of the metropolisation process occurring within a system of cities with the help of scaling laws and network analysis. We define the metropolisation process - not at the local level of one metropolitan area but at a macro-geographical level - as the ability of larger cities to capture the activities related to innovation waves and to be the first to benefit from these in terms of population growth. A series of urban attributes are used to quantify, through exponents of scaling laws the differentiated behaviour of urban hierarchies when opening up to the global networks that characterize the most recent wave of innovation. Network analysis provides another type of formalism that helps us construct a better understanding of how globalization processes, especially the spread of multinational firms, have diffused in the Eastern part of the European urban system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City-regions have become the new dominant form of urbanization in both developed and developing countries, comprising a polycentric network of multiple cities of assorted sizes. However, urbanization does not occur uniformly within the city-region, creating several types of territorial inequalities. This study argues that there is a lack of city-region studies in Latin America for analysing these internal inequalities, expressed, among other aspects, in fragmented land occupation, highly differentiated economic decentralisation, and marked social-urban-rural and urban-urban inequalities. The city-region territory represents a fragmented, divided territory in an urban-rural, social, and economic sense. The main findings of this study of Mexico City's city-region point to the fact that globalization dynamized the economic development of metropolitan zones and second-tier cities, yet that its effect on rural areas was limited. It has created a clear territorial distinction between its main urban and rural territories, with the latter effectively becoming poor regional peripheries. Economic advantages have favoured metropolitan areas through the decentralisation of manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services, excluding small cities and rural areas from this economic model. The last two are the clearest losers in this process since they are associated with places with the most obvious disadvantages and the most marked social inequalities. Rural areas have low productivity and incipient industrialisation, and expel the migrant population, whereas metropolitan peripheries have high levels of social marginalisation. • City-regions have become a new dominant form of urbanization in both developed and developing countries. • There is a lack of city-region studies in Latin American to analyse internal inequalities and territorial divisions. • In the Mexico City's city region globalisation has widened the gap between metropolitan zones, second-tier cities, and rural zones. • Megaurbanization in Mexico is characterised by a discontinuous process, with no apparent policy for rational land occupation. • Mexico City's city-region is a fractured territory with the presence of social inequality in its main urban and rural areas [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last fifty years the tendency towards a dispersion of productive activities that emerged with globalisation and the advent of telematics have fuelled processes that are changing the structure of metropolitan areas across the world. Against the background of the general process of metropolisation, it is interesting nowadays to study the characteristics, structure and development trends of a vast “hybrid” area that has grown up around the established city of Rome. The subject of this work is an analysis of the creative sector between Rome and the sea, and the potential for future development in this area.