GOLD Report I - UCLG

255I. IntroductionWorldwide, metropolitan regions (also referredto as “urban regions” or “city regions”)are rapidly becoming the predominant formof human settlement. In 1800 only 2% ofthe world’s population lived in urban areas.Five years from today –most likely when avillager somewhere in Asia or Africa movesto an urban center there– the majority ofthe world’s population will be urban. Thereafter,humankind will be, indisputably, anurban species.With the industrial revolutions of the 19thand early 20th Centuries, urban regions becamethe predominant form of settlementthroughout most of the global North. Thisprocess of urbanization is now increasinglythe rule in the global South as well. Forexample, most of Latin America is now urbanized.The United Nations predicts that from2005 to 2030, 90% of all global populationgrowth will take place in urban regions of theglobal South (UNCHS 2005).The size and form of metropolitan regionsdiffer considerably, both within countries andbetween global North and global South regions.The size of today’s largest urbanregions is unprecedented in world history. In1950 only one city had a population of morethan 10 million. By 1975 there were fivecities of this size, three of them in the developingworld. By 2000 there were 16 citieswith populations over 10 million, twelve ofthem in the developing world. However, suchmegacities like these present only part of thestory. Cities with populations in excess ofone million are proliferating worldwide, andthe number of cities with more than five millioninhabitants is also increasing. As morepeople are drawn into expanding urbanregions (UNCHS 2005), the world’s metropolisesgrow more extensive, more diverseand more fragmented.Simultaneously, changes in the governance,economics and societies continue to transformthe spatial and social structures of urbanregions. Diverse service sectors in boththe South and the North have grown intodominant components of metropolitan economies.As economic globalization has increasinglylinked urban regions to each other,and cities to their peripheries and hinterlands,competition among cities and regionshas intensified. At the same time, widespreaddecentralization has encouraged high-levelgovernments to abandon local governmentswithin metropolitan regions to the myriadconsequences of the ongoing demographic,economic and social changes.Social scientists have for many years linkedurbanization with economic development,education and other components of “modernization”(Ingram 1997). Of course, citiesare still the centers of economic and socialactivity worldwide, but in important waysthe dynamics of modernization have changed.It is increasingly clear that today’s metropolitanregions face unprecedentedgovernance challenges. The size of moderncities, their continued growth, their socialand spatial fractures, their distinctive economiccharacteristics, and their institutionaldimensions present hitherto unanticipateddimensions of governance. As expandingmetropolitan regions cope with the newfacts of governance, governments at higherlevels must also acknowledge and addressmetropolitan issues. Nor is it likely thatsolutions will be simple. Solutions for oneregion may not pertain in another. Eachmetropolitan setting, North and South, is inimportant respects unique.II. Conditions of metropolitangovernanceWorldwide urbanization has given rise tothe global phenomenon of geographicallyextended metropolitan regions. This chapterfocuses on governance of these settings,governance being defined as “actionsand institutions within an urban region thatregulate or impose conditions for its politicaleconomy” (Sellers 2002, p. 9). Despite themany forms that metropolitan governmentstake, they confront common challenges shapedby parallel shifts in politics, economics andThe size of today’slargest urbanregions isunprecedented inworld history