The Complex Ecology of the City-Region

Public action by cities faces the challenge to foster the ‘qualities of place’ of cities in a new stage of urbanization that is characterized by the dynamic external interconnectivity of social and economic activities, Moreover, this challenge includes addressing new spatial patterns, that are more polycentric and decentralized, at enlarged levels of regional scale. This is a radical transition that entails a completely new and complex urban agenda. In order to define the urban challenge precisely, the author makes use of Kevin Lynch’s conceptualization of the qualities of urban places. This transition involves both the institutional side (the changing set of public norms) and the pragmatic side of public action (the public intentions, purposes and experiments of action), and their interaction. Thus, the study of public action is conceptualized as a dynamic interaction between the changing institutional conditions and the pragmatic policies and experiments. The potential of this public action in the changing ecology of city-regions is exemplified with ‘hardware’ cases of urban infrastructure and with ‘software’ cases such as the exploration of symbolic representation.