ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the role and position of cities as economic locales and active policy makers vis-a-vis state structure, power and agendas, and the economic impact of globalisation. The scalar position of cities in the economic sphere has become much less clear, with obvious interdependencies between, and 'reaches across', the local and the global via the national. The former, 'metropolis', very much embedded in the North American literature and debate, envisages a more or less continuous, 'sprawling' expansion of a large city into the presumed rather less developed surroundings. City-regional governance thus acquires a particularly interesting standing as an arena of strong urban localism, able and willing to engage beyond city limits, whether individually or in co-operation with other localities, being met by national policies that are increasingly aware of the particular importance of cities as locales of globally acting capitalism.
