The Polycentric Metropolis

Large polycentric city-regions pose perplexing problems to social scientists and policy-makers. Not only do they represent complex socio-economic systems in their own right, but they also increasingly function as the main locational anchors of wider globalization processes. This book provides a masterful analysis of these issues, with a particular focus on the emergence, dynamics, and planning of polycentric city-regions in contemporary Europe. Allen Scott of University of California, and author of Global City-Regions The book will help further research not only in Europe but also in other countries in the context of globalisation. Built Environment Hall and Pain thoroughly succeed in presenting not just a carefully edited and well-written text but also a truly integrated book that avoids (virtually all) the pitfalls of huge collaborative research projects and that manages to produce synthesis and common conclusins. Ludger Basten, Economic Geography

Sir Peter Hall is Bartlett Professor of Planning and Regeneration at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College London, UK and Senior Research Fellow at the Young Foundation, London, UK. Author or editor of over 35 books, he is one of the world's pre-eminent authorities on urban and regional planning. Kathy Pain is the ALDAR Professor of Real Estate Development at the School of Real Estate & Planning, University of Reading, UK. She is a professional urban planner and researcher on global city relations, sustainable development and policy.

Part I The Polycentric Metropolis: Emerging Mega-City Regions * From Metropolis to Polyopolis * Part II Analysing the Polycentric Metropolis: Quantifying the Mega-City Region * Anatomy of the Polycentric Metropolis: Eight Mega-City Regions in Overview * Organization of the Polycentric Metropolis: Corporate Structures and Networks * The Connectivity of the European Heartland * The Informational Geography of Europolis: Mapping the Flow of Information * Part III Understanding the Polycentric Metropolis: Actors, Networks, Regions * Firms and Places: Inside the Mega-City Regions * Flows and Relationships: Internal and External Linkages * People and Places: Interrelating the 'Space of Flows' and the 'Space of Places' * Part IV Visiting the Polycentric Metropolis: Regional Identities, Regional Policies * South East England: Global Constellation * Randstad Holland: Multiple Faces of a Polycentric Role Model * Central Belgium: Polycentrism in a Federal Context * RhineRuhr: 'Polycentricity at its Best'? * Rhine-Main: Making Polycentricity Work? * European Metropolitan Region Northern Switzerland: Driving Agents for Spatial Development and Governance Responses * The Paris Region: Polycentric Spatial Planning in a Monocentric Metropolitan Region * Greater Dublin in the Celtic Tiger Economy: Towards a Polycentric Mega-City Region? * Part V Planning Europolis: The Effectiveness of Policy * From Strategy to Delivery: Policy Responses *