TY - BOOK ID - 126790243 TI - Cities as political objects : historical evolution, analytical categorisations and institutional challenges of metropolitanisation AU - Cole, Alistair AU - Payre, Renaud PY - 2016 SN - 9781784719890 1784719897 PB - Cheltenham: Elgar, DB - UniCat KW - Cities and towns UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:126790243 AB - Cities are back as significant political-administrative units - only now as metropolises. Rather than simply a mechanical effect of the exigencies of economic globalization, this book convincingly demonstrates that an array of active political actors are involved in energizing the trend. It is political praxis not economic structure that provides the key to understanding the efflorescence of urban governance today. The fact that there is much variation across cities in the extent and effectiveness of new models of governance suggests how much one-size-fits-all economic determinism misses the point ER -