Towards a Balanced Metropolitan Governance: Combating the “Back-door” Status of Peripheral Rural Areas
Towards a Balanced Metropolitan Governance: Combating the “Back-door” Status of Peripheral Rural Areas

Summary/Abstract: With the emergence of the larger urban areas the cities become spatially and functionally reliant on their surrounding rural areas. In order to achieve their long-term development goals and territorial cohesion, metropolitan areas strongly rely on their capacity to practice integrated governance. Therefore, the question the paper addresses is to what extent does integrative governance eliminate the peripheralization of the rural actors of the metropolitan area? The efficiency of an integrated governance approach is analyzed through the case of Cluj Metropolitan Area. The investigation is based on interviews with decision makers, territorial planners and academics from the urban core and its surrounding rural authorities. The results show that in order to act in an integrative manner and avoid peripheralization of the surrounding areas there is a need for a common metropolitan vision, partnership development and an institutional framework on a metropolitan scale.

• Details
• Contents