Algunas consideraciones sobre el concepto de ciudades región globales

What are global city regions and why have they become so prominent in the contemporary world? How and why do global city regions generate new challenges to regional governance, planning, and public policy? I will address these questions in three ways, reflecting the three components of the composite concept: global + city + region. I begin with a discussion of globalization and its effects on cities and metropolitan areas, tracing how the concept of global city regions has emerged in part from the globalization discourse. This is followed by a more specific look at the new urbanization processes that have been transforming the modern metropolis over the past thirty years, linking the concept of global city region to what I have described as the post-metropolitan transition. The third defining feature re-combines the global and the urban in the framework and context of what has been called the New Regionalism. The discussion concludes with a brief comment on the usefulness of the concept of global city regions in urban and regional development planning.