Metropolitan Governance – Mariona Tomas

Metropolitan
Governance

RESEARCH LINE 1

I have always been interested in understanding how to govern metropolitan areas. These are territories with blurred boundaries and continuous growth. Moreover, metropolitan areas are characterised by the existence of multiple governmental units and other public and private actors with different views on how to govern these spaces.

ABOUT THIS RESEARCH LINE

In this section you will find the results of a 3-year research project focused on metropolitan governance in Spain. METROGOV project has developed, for the first time, a database (published in Open Access) that includes the different formulas of metropolitan cooperation. Moreover, I have developed comparative work on metropolitan governance, mainly in Europe and North-America.

1.A. METROGOV project

1.B. Comparative work

Source: Own elaboration. Published in Tomàs, M. (2012) Exploring the Metropolitan Trap: The Case of Montreal, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 36.3: 554–67.

INFOGRAPHICS

1. The approaches to
metropolitan governance

Mariona Tomàs

INFOGRAPHICS

Metro governments

• One tier (as consequence of municipal mergers)
• Two-tier (as a second level of local government)

2. Models of
metropolitan governance

There are four main models of metropolitan governance (from more to less degree of institutionalization)

Mariona Tomàs

Single purpose metro agencies

• For the management or/and planning of a single service (public transportation, water, sewage, fire, police)

Vertical coordination

• Metro policies are designed or/and implemented by another existing level of government (county, region, land)

Voluntary cooperation

• Between municipalities (union)
• Between public and private actors
(strategic planning)

Source: Own elaboration. Published in Tomàs, M. (2017) Explaining Metropolitan Governance. The Case of Spain, Spatial Research and Planning (Raumforschung und Raumordnung) 75 (3) 243-252.

PUBLICATIONS

AUTHOR

THEME

YEAR

LINK

Tomàs. M.

Metrópolis sin gobierno. La anomalía española en Europa. València: Tirant lo Blanch.

2023

Tomàs. M.

The smart city and urban governance: the urban transformation of Barcelona, 2011–2023, Urban Research & Practice

2023

Tomàs. M.

Metropolitan revolution or metropolitan evolution? The (dis) continuities in metropolitan institutional reforms. In Metropolitan regions, planning and governance (pp. 25-39). Springer, Cham.