ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes city-regions as purpose-based associations between the territorial representations of local interests, including those of the main city/cities. The term 'city-region' emerged in the 1960s to capture and conceptualise the functional city-centric interrelations in urbanising regions. Despite this variety, Dickinson identifies four key functional types: trade area relations; social relations and movement of population. Salet and Thornley thus include 'economic structure' as a key determinant in the shape of business-oriented 'Private Sector Networks'. They suggest this as one of three intersecting pillars of relation-based city-regional spatialisation, with the other two being 'Intraregional Networks' and 'Transregional Networks'. In Germany, the intended internationality of city-regions became official policy, when in the mid 1990s, the national strategic development plan explicitly designated 'European Metropolitan Regions'. The balance between urban and regional features in the process of urbanisation in functional and, especially, subsequent administrative terms, has varied in conceptualisation as well as terminological usage.
