Metropolitan governance in the urban age: trends and questions

► Most people live in cities, especially the large, complex metropolitan regions that are centres of the world economy. ► Effective governance of metro regions is critical to economic productivity and to human well-being. ► In an age of economic stress and uncertainty the net benefits of effective metropolitan scale planning are a key consideration for human governance. ► Examination of the recent planning experiences of Dublin (Ireland) and Melbourne (Australia) exposes the need for explicit metropolitan governance and the benefits that derive from this through effective planning.