The Polycentric Metropolis Learning from Mega-City Regions in Europe

About this book

A new 21st century urban phenomenon is emerging: the networked polycentric mega-city region. Developed around one or more cities of global status, it is characterized by a cluster of cities and towns, physically separate but intensively networked in a complex spatial division of labor.

This book describes and analyzes eight such regions in North West Europe - South East England, the Bassin Parisien, central Belgium, the Dutch Randstad, Rhine-Ruhr, Rhine-Main, northern Switzerland and Greater Dublin; the authors integrate contributions from experts in these regions into a seamless text. For the first time, this work shows how businesses interrelate and communicate in geographical space - within each region, between them, and with the wider world. This groundbreaking study also discusses policy ramifications and outcomes for infrastructure, transport systems and regulation.

Contents

Part I The Polycentric Metropolis: Emerging Mega-City Regions
From Metropolis to Polyopolis

Part II Analysing the Polycentric Metropolis: Quantifying the Mega-City Region
Anatomy of the Polycentric Metropolis: Eight Mega-City Regions in Overview
Organization of the Polycentric Metropolis: Corporate Structures and Networks
The Connectivity of the European Heartland
The Informational Geography of Europolis: Mapping the Flow of Information

Part III Understanding the Polycentric Metropolis: Actors, Networks, Regions
Firms and Places: Inside the Mega-City Regions
Flows and Relationships: Internal and External Linkages
People and Places: Interrelating the 'Space of Flows' and the 'Space of Places'

Part IV Visiting the Polycentric Metropolis: Regional Identities, Regional Policies
South East England: Global Constellation
Randstad Holland: Multiple Faces of a Polycentric Role Model
Central Belgium: Polycentrism in a Federal Context
RhineRuhr: 'Polycentricity at its Best'?
Rhine-Main: Making Polycentricity Work?
European Metropolitan Region Northern Switzerland: Driving Agents for Spatial Development and Governance Responses
The Paris Region: Polycentric Spatial Planning in a Monocentric Metropolitan Region
Greater Dublin in the Celtic Tiger Economy: Towards a Polycentric Mega-City Region?

Part V Planning Europolis: The Effectiveness of Policy
From Strategy to Delivery: Policy Responses

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Biography

Sir Peter Hall is Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, UCL, UK and Senior Research Fellow at the Young Foundation, London.
Kathy Pain is a Research Fellow at the Young Foundation, London and at the Globalisation and World Cities (GaWC) Study Group in the Department of Geography at Loughborough University, UK.