city-region, model of urban development, predominant in North America, that is characterized by extensive urban sprawl and the development of highly powerful economic poles located in the suburbs.
City-regions represent the most advanced stage of urban development that exists today. Worldwide, the urban population is mainly concentrated in vast urban regions whose morphology and structure have moved further and further away from a model that can be characterized as European and based on city centres wielding their domination and control (political, economic, and symbolic) over the suburbs that make up their hinterland. Although European cities are still strongly marked by their specific history, they are in fact increasingly moving toward a North American urban model. City-regions have been challenging the historical domination of city centres.
The new conditions of urban development pose problems of coordination between municipalities in their development of public policies that are both effective and legitimate in the areas of urban planning, housing, transportation, and sustainable development. Indeed, in modern societies where hierarchical relations are being reconfigured in both the public and private spheres, these coordination problems can no longer be solved through the creation of major metropolitan institutions that merge municipalities, share resources, and generate economies of scale in the delivery of basic public services. The few examples of municipal mergers intended to solve this problem in a radical way (Montreal, Jacksonville, Nashville) rarely yielded conclusive results, either in terms of effectiveness or democratic control. From this perspective, the capacity of city-regions to face these challenges of governance at the metropolitan level largely depends on the specific local political contexts that may either favour or hamper cooperation between municipalities. It mainly depends on whether or not policies are carried out by the states (federated, federal, central, according to the nature of the national political system). Although in the United States, for example, the 1990s were marked by a mild revival of interest in new regionalism, the dynamic was stronger in countries like France, Great Britain, Germany, and even Mexico. However, in many cases (Italy, the Netherlands, Chile), these institutional dynamics are blocked either by resistance within states, which do not want to see the political and institutional weight of their country’s principal city-regions strengthened, or by deep hostility displayed by the levels of subnational governments, which do not welcome the emergence of powerful and directly competitive metropolitan governments.
City-regions generate wealth as well as social exclusion and constitute spaces where the greatest challenges of modern societies (social justice, integration of immigrants, and economic competitiveness) are concentrated. Thus, their governance is a key issue and calls for renewed interest on the part of citizens and the political sphere in order to avoid the exacerbation of social and racial tensions.