The paper provides an overview of the key issues and themes raised and debated during a workshop on city-regions dealing with the ‘construction’ of city-regions as: formal, administrative structures; less formalised co-operative entities and networks; and imagined territories. It finds that there is no single model of city-regional policy or institution-building that can simply be transferred to and reproduced within the English context, and that there is variation in the range of purposes for which the notion of the city-region has been used.

The focus on the city-region, a central urban core together with its commuter hinterland, has grown over recent years, and in particular its relevance as an administrative and strategic entity. Calls for regional and sub-regional reform have been voiced partly as a response to economic globalisation and the erosion of the power and scope of nation-states, and partly to the growth in powers assumed by supra-national bodies such as the European Union. This is one in a set of working papers on a framework for city-regions providing an evidence base if a national policy for city-regions is to be developed.

The Framework for City-Regions study is being delivered in several stages: identifying the footprints of cities through data such as travel-to-work, travel-to-travel, travel-to-shop and travel-to-entertainment; reviewing the key drivers of city-regional growth; assessing the potential added value of a city-regional approach; and exploring the lessons learnt through the reform and delivery of urban-regional policies elsewhere in Europe.  This working paper reports on a workshop on “Comparative European city-regional policy” held in March 2005.

There is no one single model of city-regional policy which can be transferred to and reproduced within the English context, partly due to the profound differences in national and sub-national institutional structures and histories. In addition, there is a wide variation in the range of purposes for which the concept of the city-region has been used. Three options emerged from the review of French, German and Dutch experience: the creation of new formalised city-regional structures; the development of less formal cross-boundary co-operation; and the employment of ‘imaginary geographies’ for the purposes of analysis, networking and policy-making. Progressive coalitions for change may be easier to build with reform working around the status quo rather than trying to revolutionise it.

Department for Communities and Local Government
Phone: +44 20 7944 4400
contactus@communities.gsi.gov.uk

01/02/2006

Simon Marvin, Alan Harding (University of Salford); Brian Robson (University of Manchester)

research

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment

Urban economy