El área metropolitana de MadridUn caso singular de (des)institucionalización

Abstract

Metropolitan areas have emerged as the optimal territorial scale for sustainable development in the context of globalization. They have been promoted in the last decade by different European countries.The Spanish case, and within this, that of the city of Madrid and the municipalities integrated in its functional area, constitutes a case of interest due to its uniqueness. Despite being one of the most populated areas in Europe, it has not yet been endowed with a metropolitan authority, quite the contrary, since the creation of the regional entity (Autonomous Community of Madrid) in 1983 itis possible to identify a process of (de)institutionalization of the metropolitan issue that today allows us to argue that it is outside the political agenda at the regional and local level. This paper addresses the case of Madrid since there is a lack of studies that analyse the reasons why the Madrid metropolitan project has not been reactivated or that explore whether there is a “demand for metropolitanization”. This paper presents the preliminary results achieved in the framework of the METROGOV project. The objective is to offer an overview of the case focusing on its evolution and the state of the matter, as well as advancing in the definition of the next steps of the research.