ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the empirical experiences of several city-regions in the long-standing economic "core" of North America and Western Europe, where state structures and governance practices have been long established but also differ in key respects, notably the degree of federalism and regulatory cultures of state-market relationships. Meanwhile, Lyon and Turin both exemplify the Western European tradition of urban development and governance, especially the tensions between "welfare" and "workfare" as ideological backdrop, while also differing in their national contexts: that is, a centralized France and a federalized Italy. In their novel analysis of digital services and urban nodes between Milan and Turin, Morandi et al. reflect on Seattle as a possible case of a nascent novel "smart city-regionalism". Attention is given to city-regions situated in a Western, post-industrial/post-Fordist political-economic and societal milieu, setting the scene for a growing requirement to develop innovative efforts at city-regionalism to achieve effective policies and outcomes.
