- Integration and Disintegration: The View from the URBAN REGION    104 kb by    Prosperi, David | prosperi@fau.edu    Short Outline This paper argues first that the URBAN REGION is the appropriate conceptualization of space, and secondly, that the study of processes that operate at this scale are needed for understanding and action. Six major forces are explored and a new approach for planning on and at the scale of the urban region is suggested. Abstract Most planning, development, and real estate projects and/or decisions are scale-limited phenomenon. From the viewpoint of the urban region, these individual projects are like a single acupuncture needle placed on the landscape. As any acupuncturist will attest, successful acupuncture treatment requires many needles to enable the patient to receive intended benefits. Against the almost prevailing ideology of studying a particular administrations, a particular sector, or a particular sub-region (individual needles), this paper argues first that the notion of the URBAN REGION is the appropriate conceptualization of space and the only appropriate object of analysis. The second argument is that the economic, political, and social systems that operate at this scale provide a useful framework for both understanding and action. . This paper explores, from both scholarly and practice perspectives, six forces that operate at the scale of the URBAN REGION. They are: (1) the dynamic interplay of centripetal (focused on strengthening the core, such as branding and cultural tourism) and centrifugal (focused on developing the overall region, such as sprawl or suburban towns) forces; (2) the structure of and spatial predispositions of activities in the new economy; (3) the issue or policy of Polycentricity; (4) the people v. place debate; (5) the role of immigration and social mixing and attendant demographic (age, life cycle) issues related to social, economic, and spatial aspirations; and, (6) the city management paradigm that focuses on process (democracy and citizen participation) rather than product (outcomes in terms of places and income distributions The paper concludes that a new understanding of complexity is required and suggests possible avenues to plan at and on the scale of the URBAN REGION. Keywords urban region, system forces, new strategies Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper