Political Geography of Cities and Regions

<p>This monograph presents a novel typology of relational and territorial perspectives on legitimacy and identity. This typology is then applied to two different political and historical contexts, namely the trajectories of the metropolitan region Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the metropolitan region Ruhr in Germany. The historical discussion spans 500 years, providing valuable depth to the study.</p><p>Taken as a whole, the book provides a new perspective within the territorial-relational dichotomy and the geographies of discontent debate. Its key insights are that identity and political legitimacy are embedded in history and that both relational and territorial perspectives on these issues are time and place dependent.</p><p>This book will be stimulating reading for advanced students, researchers, and policymakers working in political geography, human geography, regional studies, and broader social and political sciences.</p> 1. Introduction: Looking beyond national populism, 2. The relational and territorial perspectives, 3. Early modernity and urban autonomy, 4. Industrial modernity: integrating cities in the national territory, 5. Late modernity: from territorial regulation to competition, 6. Metropolitan regions: competitiveness justifying the new institutional framework, 7. Challenging the metropolitan region: local resistance identities, 8. The resurgence of the territorial perspective: universal villagism and localised territorialisations, 9. Conclusion: the cycle of dominance of the territorial and relational perspective