City-Regions, Neoliberal Globalization and Democracy: A Research Agenda

This paper argues that research on city-regions could benefit from more sustained and critical attention to the question of democracy. That is, it should examine more closely how decisions in city-regions are made, why they are made that way, and how they can be made more democratically. Much current research on politics in cities has framed the issue in terms of citizenship. That work has produced great insight. However, the attention to citizenship has prompted very little attention to democracy, even though the two concepts are deeply intertwined. Current interest in city-regions opens up the possibility that a vibrant line of research on democracy can be added to and engage with that on citizenship.