September 16-17 2010

Delft, The Netherlands

The aims of the workshop are:

-        to bring together an international group of researchers with an interest in the geography of contemporary urban systems;

-        to present and discuss research findings on the spatial organization and structure of cities, metro areas, countries and transnational regions and how these (may) affect their performance;

-        to explore opportunities for joint research by discusssing a future research agenda;

-        to select papers for a special issue of Regional Studies

This Workshop is organized by the Regional Studies Association Research Network on Regional Urban Systems and Performance. Below you find a sketch of the themes addressed by this workshop.

The city is developing into a regional phenomenon. What is "urban" spreads out over a larger regional space, way beyond the traditional city boundaries. The geographical scope of social and economic processes (such as commuting, leisure and social trips, inter-firm relations, and business to consumer relations) has increased, which leads not just to ever more complex urban- rural relations, but also to new functional linkages at higher spatial scales between historically distinct urban regions. A key message of recent concepts like "megaregions", "polycentric mega-city regions" or "polycentric urban regions" is that we are gradually moving away from  monocentric cities to polycentric mega-city regions. Nevertheless, theories on cities and agglomeration, as well as empirical analyses of cities still often depart from conceptualisations of the city that hardly acknowledge this wider regional context. This means that we face major theoretical and empirical challenges in urban research.

It the same time, polycentricity and regional networking between cities have become major issues in strategic development strategies of many countries. These policies stress benefits of polycentric development, relating for instance to the improved exploitation of critical urban mass, complementarities, the presence of less agglomeration diseconomies and providing equal opportunities to inhabitants. However, the economic rationale behind polycentric development policies is still rather unclear and such policies so-far lack an empirical and theoretical base.

It is important to understand which economic and social mechanisms in cities are important for the development of the spatial layout and fabric of urban agglomerations and the "regionalizing" of urbanity. Moreover, there is a need to critically discuss and evaluate the conceptual mechanisms and theories behind polycentric development strategies before implementing such policies.

Dr. E.J. Meijers | Delft University of Technology | OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies |

P.O. Box 5030 | 2600 GA Delft | The Netherlands | T +31 15 2787892 | F +31

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