Deepens our understanding of metropolitan governance through an innovative comparative project on the subject of regional governance in Canada and Europe. The book expands the comparative angle from economic competitiveness and social cohesion to housing and transportation and expands our perspective on municipal governance to the regional scale.

Today more than ever, cities matter to the economic and social well-being of the vast majority of Canadians. Canada's urban centers are simultaneously the engines of the national economy and the places where the risks of social exclusion are most concentrated, making innovative and inclusive urban governance an urgent national priority. Governing Urban Economies is the first detailed scholarly examination of relations among governmental and community-based actors in Canadian city-regions. Comparing patterns of municipal-community relations and federal-provincial interactions across city-regions, this volume tracks the ways in which urban coalitions tackle complex economic and social challenges. Featuring an inter-disciplinary group of established and up-and-coming scholars, this collection breaks new ground in the Canadian urban politics literature and will appeal to urbanists working in a range of national contexts.

A rich and nuanced analysis of the interplay of social, political, and economic factors in thirteen Canadian city-regions, large and small, this collection integrates research focusing on innovation, creativity and talent-retention, and governance in order to understand the distinctive experience of each region.

The region is back in town. Galloping urbanization has pushed beyond historical notions of metropolitanism. City-regions have experienced, in Edward Soja’s terms, “an epochal shift in the nature of the city and the urbanization process, marking the beginning of the end of the modern metropolis as we knew it.” Governing Cities Through Regions broadens and deepens our understanding of metropolitan governance through an innovative comparative project that engages with Anglo-American, French, and German literatures on the subject of regional governance. It expands the comparative angle from issues of economic competiveness and social cohesion to topical and relevant fields such as housing and transportation, and it expands comparative work on municipal governance to the regional scale. With contributions from established and emerging international scholars of urban and regional governance, the volume covers conceptual topics and case studies that contrast the experience of a range of Canadian metropolitan regions with a strong selection of European regions. It starts from assumptions of limited conversion among regions across the Atlantic but is keenly aware of the remarkable differences in urban regions’ path dependencies in which the larger processes of globalization and neo-liberalization are situated and materialized.

While government provides the structure of public leadership, governance is the art of public leadership. This timely book examines current trends in metropolitan governance issues. It analyzes specific cases from thirteen major metropolitan regions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, all woven together by an overall framework established in the first three chapters. The distinguished contributors address such governance issues as city-county consolidation, local-federal coordination, annexation and special districting, and private contracting, with special attention to lessons learned from both successes and failures. As urban governance innovations have clearly outpaced urban government structures in recent years, the topics covered here are especially relevant.

Planning Canadian Regions is the first book to consolidate the history, evolution, current practice, and future prospects for regional planning in Canada. As planners grapple with challenges wrought by globalization, the evolution of massive new city-regions, and the pressures for sustainable and community economic development, a deeper understanding of Canada’s approaches is invaluable. Hodge and Robinson identify the intellectual and conceptual foundations of regional planning and review the history and main modes of regional planning for rural regions, economic development regions, resource development regions, and metropolitan and city-regions. They draw lessons from Canada’s past experience and conclude by proposing a new paradigm addressing the needs of regional planning now and in the future, emphasizing regional governance, greater inclusiveness and integration of physical planning with planning for economic sustainability and natural ecosystems. Planning Canadian Regions will be a much-needed text for students and teachers of regional planning and an indispensable reference for planning practitioners. It will also find a receptive audience in such disciplines as urban planning, environmental studies, geography, political science, public administration, and economics.

First published in 2013. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Drawing on the lessons from successful and unsuccessful attempts at the reform of metropolitan governance, this book identifies ways by which central and metropolitan governments can work better to optimise the potential of each urban region.