Introduction

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to serve as an introduction to the book, which aims to be a first comprehensive enquiry that examines the various elements of local governance in Spain, providing an understanding of it and thus contributing to existing knowledge and recent debates on the phenomenon. The development of the chapter will set out its specific objectives, structure and scope, and the concept of local governance used as a theoretical basis, before dealing with the context of local governance in Spain, which will include a description of the political-administrative framework in the light of the concept of local governance used, as well as the context of local government in Spain in a comparative European perspective. This context will help to understand the specificities of local governance in Spain. To anticipate what the reader will find throughout the work, the chapter will end with a summary of the content of each of its 12 chapters, which have been drafted by experts from various Spanish universities, all of them taking local governance as a frame of reference,