This article challenges our perception of the European Union: a group of nations, or a group of regions? Expressing ideas similar to those in Joel Garreau's Nine Nations of North America, this is macro-planning at its largest.
Expressing ideas similar to those in Joel Garreau's Nine Nations of North America, this is macro-planning at its largest. "This is the economic spine of Europe, limned from space like a blue-glowing X-ray, a megalopolis seven centuries in the making. Here is the greatest concentration of big cities on the globe, the greatest production capacity per square kilometer, the densest commercial traffic....It is a remarkable feat. But behind this story lies another, no less dynamic, even if less visible. Thats the rise of Europes regions. Even as the European Union redraws its map, parts of Europe are charting their own path toward unionnot in large or in lock step with all others, but in bits and bites among themselves. The sheer expanse of todays borderless Europe is indeed breathtaking and, for some, intimidating."
Thanks to Steve Miller
FULL STORY: The Blue Banana

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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research