Who and how decides when and where? Drifts and deadlocks in metropolitan governance

Abstract

Analyzing metropolitan governance is a way of understanding the changes that have taken place to increasing the competitiveness, efficiency, and equity thereof. We use a theoretical structure that combines the history of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area with three conceptual elements: shift from government to governance; paradigms of metropolitan governance; and factors specific to metropolitan areas. Through these, we reveal the complex institutional architecture at play in this territory. Finally, we explore to what extent these relate with legal framework and development pressures, and how the latter frequently seem to be conditioned by conjunctural impulses and not by a long-term vision.-.