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4.1 INTRODUCTION The first half of this thesis was dedicated to understanding the impacts that society has on space, studying such evolution through the theoretical lens of the socio-spatial dialectic. The first chapter of this thesis presented an organizational structure for later arguments made. The second chapter of this thesis charted the evolutionary trend and nexus between space and society, providing evidence that societal changes shape urban spatial forms and governance patterns and vice versa. Chapter Two depicted and discussed the changes to urban spaces and urban governance networks in the modern era. The third chapter of this thesis focused on the problems faced by urban governance networks in light of changes and shifts in the socio-spatial configuration of modern urban systems. The concept of “mismatch� was introduced and discussed to highlight the differences between functional capacity of urban governance networks and the organization of the spatial system in which they operate. While the city exists as rich territorial system, it was argued that the scale of intervention of urban governance networks is limited to more localized boundaries, thus rendering urban governance networks ineffective in the dealing with more complex, systemic urban problems. The second half of this thesis, starting with Chapter Four, is instead dedicated to studying the impact that urban spatial organization has on urban social configuration. The fourth chapter of this thesis will move from a discussion of problems to a discussion policy processes in urban regional governance network reconfiguration. It will propose that emerging urban regional forms require and
THESIS: NET WORK GOVERNANCE FOR URBAN REGIONS
compel institutions to move toward a network governance framework to establish cross-jurisdictional solutions to the problems of metropolitan fragmentation. The chapter will propose a theoretical framework for understanding the activities of mitigation in a system of functional mismatch discussed in the previous chapter. It will show that, through the implementation of digital telecommunications technologies, governance networks can affectively adapt to and mitigate the problem of mismatch by changing the dimension, scale and scope of their operations. Specific examples of how digital telecommunications technologies induce changes in governance systems and change the roles of actors in governance networks will be discussed. It will ultimately be proven that the installation of digital telecommunication technologies and the servicing of urban regional populations induces shifts in scale of urban regional actor networks, mitigating the mismatch between institutional and functional regional systems. Information and theoretical frameworks constructed in the following chapters of this thesis derive from literary research and direct observation based on interviews with relevant actors in the region of Emilia Romagna. Voices and perceptions of these actors will provide a first understanding of reconfiguring of urban regional actor networks. Case explorations will specify these observations in Chapter Five of the thesis.
4.2 THESIS HYPOTHESIS Purely metropolitan or purely local government and governance models do not fit the socio-spatial complexities