The citizen in city-regions: Patterns and variations

With the growth of city-regions, the local citizenship may increasingly become city-regional rather than municipal. This article provides a meta-analysis of the current state of knowledge with regard to general patterns of city-regionalism; that is, citizens’ orientations toward political matters in the city-region, beyond one’s own municipality. The theoretical framework draws from theories of participation, citizen integration, and democratic scale. The analysis is based on 12 publications, making use of the 8 surveys from 7 countries that have been carried out in the Western world since 2000. The analysis provide support for the theoretical assumptions, but because the data are not directly comparable, conclusions are formulated as hypotheses: It is suggested that city-regionalism is stronger in larger and fragmented city-regions. Further, those living in the suurban municipalities hold stronger intermunicipal interests, attitudes, and identities but those in the core city are more in favor of redistributive regional reform. Finally, city-regionalism is stronger among those who are mobile in the city-region, are better educated, have a general interest in politics, and belong to the political left. The findings have implications for how democratic participation and governance may be organized in city-regions. Further and internationally coordinated studies are required.