ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overall analytical framework for the empirical application of the conceptual fusion of transition and smartness in city-regional governance. It argues shapes the ways in which specific city-regions move towards adopting smart governance principles and practices. The dual transition consists of changes to the external context, that is, the situation of city-regions, as well as changes to their internal conditions. The chapter discusses the transitions are circumscribed by place-specific interactions between structure and agency. It examines these interactions at two scalar levels: within and outside city-regions. Analytically, the chapter explores the external transition specifically through three main "orders," which embody more concrete regime principles and rationales of control and operation between the development-political "poles" of competitiveness and cohesiveness. The conditioning impact of external parameters on actors within city-regions, combined with place-specific internal factors, circumscribe the acceptability of policies among local electorates.
