The notion of metropolitan region refers to a collection of territories considered interdependent, [Page 510]some located in the central areas and others on the urban fringe. It is also identified with a plan to constitute a coherent territorial structure operating across several spatial scales. Yet, metropolitan territorial coherence is contradicted by the emergence of peripheral spaces, including “edge” and “edgeless” cities, which deny the predominant role of the center. However, the metropolitan region, a territory experienced as a functional construct by some but an abstraction by others, suffers from a lack of political recognition in most countries.

Scholarship in the area of urban studies views the metropolitan region, first and foremost, as the product of a process of an urban area's expansion. Thus, it is a ...