Regions and Regional Planning: Experiences from France and Europe

This book addresses the making and transforming of regions and territorial organisation, which are significant activities for policy makers and planners. It focuses on the regional, intermediate scale and gathers contributions by researchers from various European universities, especially at a time when there is a renewed interest for regions, regionalisation and regional planning.

The different chapters in this edited volume deliver insightful theoretical approaches and documented empirical case studies. The recent reform that redrew and reorganized regions in France is of particular interest. Other contributions enrich the reflection about territorial reforms and changes by analysing situations in Italy, Poland, United Kingdom - notably the issue of planning city-regions or metropolitan areas. This volume provides a comparative view of the impact of territorial reforms on planning policies and explores the evolution of regional settings in Europe. It also confirms region as a fundamental scale and an essential instrument to organise and develop societies and territories.

The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal European Planning Studies.

Thomas Perrin is Associate Professor in Regional Planning and Social Sciences at the School of Architecture of Montpellier / ENSAM, Research Centre TVES-Lille. His research and teaching deal with regions, regional planning and territorial cooperation on the one hand, and with cultural policies and cultural relations on the other hand. He has contributed to several international research projects and publications.