Metropolitan governance, democracy and the dynamics of place

Continuing urban sprawl combined with faltering or failed attempts of local government reform have resulted in a growing divergence between functional and institutional urban spaces in most industrialised countries. Today, cities in the (Weberian) sense of territorially integrated socio-economic entities no longer exist. The urban phenomenon is better described by the notion of metropolitan areas, that is multi-centred urban regions which have developed mainly along functional networks, cutting across institutionally defined territorial boundaries. This situation of governmental fragmentation leads to difficulties for the solution of public problems in these areas.