Abstract
The city-region, one of the most powerful and enduring scalar imaginaries, has seen a resurgence in recent time in both academic literatures and policy agendas. This is not only a reincarnation of an analytical concept to help understand the complex socio-spatial relations, but also a manifestation of a new wave of metropolitan governance. In this presentation, I aim to demonstrate how sixty years of analysing and mapping have helped cementing and legitimating a distinct imaginary of the city-region which is a) economically-driven, and b) city-centric. I will critically review different methodologies that have been employed to define the city-region before focusing on the prevailing conception of the city-region as a functional economic space and the dominant top-down methodology which is used for defining its boundaries.
Simin Davoudi is Professor of Environmental Policy & Planning at School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, and Associate Director of the Institute for Sustainability at Newcastle University. She is past President of the Association of the European Schools of Planning (AESOP); Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has led the UK Office of Deputy Prime Minister’s Planning Research Network; was a member of expert panels for: 3 UK government departments (DCLG, DECC & DEFRA), 2 EU Directorate Generals (Environment & Regional Policy), the ESRC Grant Assessment Panel, Research Excellence Framework (REF), and several European research councils; held visiting professorship at the universities of: Amsterdam and Nijmegen (Netherlands), Karlskrona (Sweden), Virginia Tech (USA) and RMIT (Australia) and served on several advisory councils (including Hong Kong University); is co-Editor of the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. Her research on urban planning, environmental governance, climate change and resilience is published widely. Selected books include: Justice and Fairness in the City (2016, Policy Press), Town and Country Planning in the UK (2015, Routledge), Reconsidering Localism (2015, Routledge), Climate Change and Sustainable Cities (Routledge, 2014), Conceptions of Space and Place in Strategic Spatial Planning (Routledge, 2009), Planning for Climate Change (Earthscan, 2009) Planning, Governance and Spatial Strategy in Britain (Macmillan, 2000).