Can European cities survive within a globalizing world? The coming age of megacities or the growth of globalizing European cities?

Abstract

"Mega cities are the new urban forms in towns, leading a to a flow of theoretical conceptualization from the network society to the LA postmodernist urban school. European cities, with the exception of London, Paris and possibly a handful of other cases are not on average at the core of the Megacities rise. The paper critically examines the rise of megacities. It attempts to identify the ways in which some common trends and variables which gave rise elsewhere to megacities also have a serious impact of European cities, both the largest one and the medium sized. It concentrates on the issue of the making of inequalities and the cities as a social and cultural fabric. The discussion on European cities and Megacities is finally instrumental to discuss the changing pattern of inequalities within European societies." (author's abstract)