Metropolitan trends in the world · Issue Paper #1 · Metropolis Observatory
Date of publication
Topic
Sustainability
Metropolitan Governance
Economic development
Migration and refugees
Type of resources
Issue Papers
The social and economic changes of the 20th and 21st century have reshaped the urban landscape. Now more than half of the human population is living in cities and over 40% of them are doing it in metropolitan areas, with the forecast that in the future this trend will only increase.
Even when the human development rates are much higher in urban areas than in rural ones, numerous challenges are emerging from this growth of population. These problems, mainly related to social, economic and ecologic inequalities, are very similar between metropolises, therefore a trend on how to deal with them.
All the different models of governance, in any case, would have to face issues related to the low level of competences that metropolises have, how to fund them and how it affects their autonomy, the political participation from citizens, and the multi level governance between administrations.
In the first publication of the Issue Papers from the Metropolis Observatory, Mariona Tomàs from the University of Barcelona, highlights the challenges that governments and policymakers will face in the urban landscape and recommends some possible solutions to confront them, focusing on the different levels of governance.
Even when the human development rates are much higher in urban areas than in rural ones, numerous challenges are emerging from this growth of population. These problems, mainly related to social, economic and ecologic inequalities, are very similar between metropolises, therefore a trend on how to deal with them.
All the different models of governance, in any case, would have to face issues related to the low level of competences that metropolises have, how to fund them and how it affects their autonomy, the political participation from citizens, and the multi level governance between administrations.
In the first publication of the Issue Papers from the Metropolis Observatory, Mariona Tomàs from the University of Barcelona, highlights the challenges that governments and policymakers will face in the urban landscape and recommends some possible solutions to confront them, focusing on the different levels of governance.
