Recent decades have been dominated by discourses describing a resurgence of regions. Yet despite its prominence the region remains a largely Delphian concept. In the period of new regionalist orthodoxy, for example, while it was recognised that regions take various forms, the normative claim...

Globalisation of economic activities and the rise of a knowledge-based economy lead to an uncoupling of spatial and functional structures. This process can especially be observed in polycentric city regions. At the same time, the rise of new economic centres and new patterns of interaction...