European small towns: what role do they play in metropolitan governance?

In recent years, several studies have explored the challenges that accompany the creation of metropolitan governments, with particular reference to the institutional relations and power dynamics that potentially subordinate smaller towns to logics and objectives defined in the core area. This paper aims at shedding further light on the matter as it argues that, whereas the establishment of institutions and governance arrangements exercising autonomous metropolitan political power may overcome the institutional fragmentation of metropolitan regions, it may on the other hand overshadow the role played by the smaller towns, which often lack the opportunity or the necessary institutional capacity to participate in the process. More in detail, the effectiveness of existing metropolitan settings from the small-town perspective is addressed comparatively in the contexts of England, France and Italy, three European countries which have been characterised by relevant reforms on the matter in the last decades. By tracing (i) the history of the administrative reforms that have characterised the three countries, (ii) the spatiality of their metropolitan authorities and (iii) the instruments and mechanisms that allow for the engagement and cooperation of small towns with(in) metropolitan authorities, the authors argue that the actual potential for the engagement of small towns within metropolitan governance dynamics is path and context-dependent and often hampered by institutional preconditions that gave birth to metropolitan governance in a specific context.