We cordially invite all to attend the next SPS SEMINAR:
Secondary yet metropolitan? The advantages and challenges of metropolitan integration for second-tier cities
with Rodrigo Cardoso (OTB),
TUESDAY April 18, 12:30 room BGWEST290
Faculty of Architecture, Julianalaan 134
Typology of European Metro Regions Source: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/
Why metropolitan integration is both more important and more difficult for second-tier cities
Do European second-tier cities have a greater interest than first-tier cities in pursuing metropolitan integration strategies, and do they also have greater difficulty in achieving it? The advantages of integration considered here include capturing the agglomeration benefits emerging from the aggregate metropolitan size, such as increased functional performance, acquiring greater political-institutional weight and influence over higher policy levels, and increasing regional organising capacity to better exploit existing resources. The paper discusses the persistent disadvantages of second-tier cities in comparison to first-tier cities (usually large capitals) to show that these disadvantages tend to overlap with the areas where greater metropolitan integration can have a positive impact.
The research relies on existing sets of evidence whose connections and implications have been overlooked, and on empirical data comparing the demographic and functional structures of first-tier and second-tier metropolitan regions. The argumentation suggests that pursuing metropolitan region formation is indeed very relevant for second-tier cities, most prominently for those which are embedded in larger and densely occupied urbanised areas, and located in countries where a first-tier city dominates the economic and political life.
However, several obstacles emerging from their spatial-functional structure as well as from existing policies make metropolitan integration more difficult for those cities. The conclusion discusses which issues must be overcome to allow the second-tier metropolitan region to become a key scale of territorial development strategies in the European urban system.
List to the PODCAST here:
