Metropolitanicide? Urbs, Polis and Civitas Revisited

Abstract

In this chapter, we challenge the concepts of urbs, polis and civitas as they have been traditionally applied to the city. Our exploratory analysis is an invitation to a discussion on the different forms that “urbicide” takes place. Indeed, we argue that we need to analyse this phenomenon with a metropolitan perspective, since cities cannot not be conceived as isolated units but as part of large metropolitan systems. This is why we discuss the idea of “metropolitanicide”, or the death of metropolises, through the analysis of two main dimensions (polis and civitas). First, the idea of polis relates to the way metropolitan regions are politically organized: do they have the adequate powers and financial means? We explore the different models of metropolitan governance, from metropolitan governments to informal cooperation, showing the limits of their powers. Second, the notion of civitas refers to the existence of a political community at the metropolitan scale. Do citizens of metropolitan regions have the possibility to choose their metropolitan representatives and are called to participate in political decisions? Are citizens engaged in political struggles and mobilizations at a metropolitan scale? Do they have a sense of belonging to this larger territory? In other words, we wonder if metropolises have a political meaning for citizens, which has been an under researched topic. We argue that, although the physical expansion of cities (urbs) has certainly a metropolitan dimension, both institutions and political practices are mainly conceived at a city scale.