Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Marc Pradel Miquel
Title:  Policentrismo y gobernanza metropolitana: Los casos de la región metropolitana de Barcelona y la conurbación de West Midlands
Abstract: Resumen:El presente artículo analiza la configuración de las regiones metropolitanas europeas como actores colectivos, centrándose en como las ciudades pequeñas y medianas ponen en marcha innovaciones en la gobernanza para asegurarse su subcentralidad dentro de la gran región. El artículo analiza como estas ciudades han utilizado las políticas de cohesión de la UE a través del análisis de dos casos de estudio: las ciudades del Vallès Occidental en la región metropolitana de Barcelona y las ciudades del llamado Black Country en la conurbación de West Midlands. Los casos muestran las dificultades para desarrollar una estrategia de escala metropolitana.Abstract:This article analyses the role of small and medium-sized cities in the shaping of European metropolitan regions. With the restructuring and rescaling of national-states, metropolitan regions have become central economic and political spaces in the promotion of regional competitiveness. In order to become more competitive, metropolitan regions are making efforts to create forms of coordination and new forms of governance at metropolitan scale. Critical geography has stressed that regions, rather than being geographical areas with pre-established boundaries, can be defined through functional connections between municipalities in terms of labour, investments, housing markets, and other cultural and economic elements. In these connections, the central city plays a key role, but empirical evidence shows that polycentrism is emerging as a pattern in metropolitan regions around the globe. Some authors have analysed this phenomenon as the rise of post-suburbia, that becomes a space of new centrality and becomes more relevant in the metropolitan context, whereas other approaches have underlined the concentration of economic activity in these areas as key element to understand these patterns. Nevertheless, the analysis of metropolitan regions tends to be based on the analysis of the central city, especially in terms of economic strategy.
The article focus on the role of small and medium-sized cities in the configuration of metropolitan governance, looking at how they organize innovative governance forms that ensure their relevance in the overall region, allowing for different projects for economic development than the ones proposed or taking place in the central city. The role of the European Union is key in the development of these governance innovations, as small and medium-sized cities have used European funds and know-how to deploy new forms of organization between municipalities, economic and social actors. This question is analyzed through a sociological approach that includes the social and political dimensions in the construction of coalitions and forms of governance. That means taking into consideration the existence of a common history, norms and values and a constellation of hegemonic actors that influence in the generation of new approaches. The combination of these institutional contexts and the possibilities for innovations generated by the EU framework has allowed new forms of economic development in these cities.
To analyze this question, the article proposes a comparison between the strategies of small and medium-sized cities in two European metropolitan regions: the Barcelona metropolitan region and the West Midlands conurbation, with Birmingham as its central city.  In both metropolitan regions we find cities that collaborate together to develop common strategies for economic growth, as well as certain forms of coordination of local policies. In Barcelona, the 23 cities of Vallès Occidental have organised new forms of governance to manage activation policies and to coordinate strategies for growth. In West Midlands, the cities of the so-called Black Country have organised a common 30 years strategy for growth and well-being under the basis of collaboration. The analysis of these two cases allows for comparing governance innovations in two different governance contexts, what shows how local actors adapt to multi-level governance schemes. The research presented in the article is based on the development of 50 interviews to policy-makers, representatives, and members of collective actors in the two metropolitan regions, with special focus to Black Country and Vallès Occidental. Official documents and analysis produced by different institutions have been analysed, including strategic plans for economic growth and employment, official agreements between city councils and other economic and social actors (trade unions, entrepreneurs associations, chambers of commerce, etc.).
The comparison of the two case studies shows that in both cases we find long industrial trajectories that have brought local cultures of work and economy, and a set of actors based on the industrial production. The long trajectory of industrialisation in both territories (starting in 1760 in Birmingham and Black Country and in 1840s in Barcelona and Vallès Occidental) meant the creation of industrial districts and relations of trust between economic actors that partially survive to processes of vertical integration of production processes and deindustrialisation. As a result, despite strong de-industrialisation patterns in UK and Spain, in the municipalities of Black Country and Vallès Occidental industry remains as a relevant economic activity, and economic development policies are oriented partially towards reindustrialisation. To develop these approaches, in both cases municipalities have created consortiums to coordinate economic development policies. The creation of these consortiums is an innovation in both cases as different small and medium-sized cities used to compete for resources and investments. The creation of the consortiums has meant reducing competitiveness between the municipalities participating, and offering a single proposal against other large actors such as the central city. The creation of these consortiums was possible tahnks to the existence of EU funding, which forced actors to change their historical behaviour in order to obtain funds for the municipalities. In the case of Barcelona, municipalities of Vallès Occidental agreed amongst themselves and with trade unions and entprereneurs associations on different measures to improve economic growth and employment in the area under a pilot program of the European Commission, the Employment pacts. In the case of the Black Country, the municipalities agreed to collaborate to have more possibilities to access resources in a context of scarcity of national resources.
Despite these similarities, the shape and the scope of these consortiums differ between the two cases, due to the existence of different governance contexts. In the UK, the strong role of central government in decision-making forces local authorities to adapt to the changing demands of the government. As a result, municipalities in the Black Country created a voluntary and flexible partnership able to play different roles, but at the same time they have created a long-term 30 years strategy to change the economic basis and social situation of the municipalities, which are one of the poorest areas of England. In Spain, the strong role of the Catalan government in policy-making brought the municipalities to reach a formal and rigid agreement with them to deliver policies, ensuring that some competences were going to be deployed by the consortium in which the Catalan government, trade unions and entrepreneurs associations were also involved. This rigid structure does not allow for long-term strategies, as actors involved are reluctant to take binding long-term compromises. As a result, participants agreed on a short-term strategic plan between 208 and 2013, but it was never renewed.
The comparison shows how industrial areas in economic reconversion have used European funds to promote industrial modernization and to grant their relevance in the context of large metropolitan regions. To do so, they have used their industrial identities as an element for territorial cohesion that facilitates the creation of new mechanisms for coordination. With the arrival of the crisis, these forms of collaboration have allowed to rapid responses and the maintenance of a common strategy for the municipalities involved.
Classification-JEL: R1
Keywords: Regiones Metropolitanas Europeas, Gobernanza metropolitana, Subcentralidad, Reconversión industrial, Unión Europea, European metropolitan regions, Metropolitan governance, Subcentrality, Industrial reconversion, European Union
Pages: 151-179
Volume: 3
Year: 2015
File-URL: http://www.revistaestudiosregionales.com/documentos/articulos/pdf-articulo-2483.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:rer:articu:v:3:y:2015:p:151-179