Metropolizacja a lokalne governance : globalne wyzwania państwa narodowego na przykładzie V Republiki Francuskiej

Abstract

Globalization undoubtedly is one of modern processes which lay foundations for most significant changes to contemporary societies. Social, economic and political phenomena, undergoing within nation-states and independently on them, have become a part of the network of global concerns and relations that the states are able to control no more than in a limited sense. In terms of localness the phenomenon is reflected in the processes of metropolization of urban agglomerations which form their own unique systems of governance. In doing so, they become distinctive laboratories of new forms of government and democracy. The increasing inadequacy of the territorial structure of the state and its institutional systems in terms of network systems and multilevel relations that form new and functional living space for contemporary man are responsible for initiating reforms in states. However, the process of those changes does not go automatically, and it most often stands for a confrontation of the global system imperatives with values, norms and institutions deeply rooted in social structure and shaped in the Westphalian era. Therefore, the search for wise answers to global challenges abounds in diverse results, an example of which may be seen in hybrid territorial units in France which are concomitant with the specific forms of governance that are formed within. Despite the fact that the book deals with French status quo in the main, it touches upon universal issues which concern challenges that modern democratic nation-states have to meet. The book addresses all researchers of contemporary times, who make an attempt to come to deeper understanding of the changes that a modern state and democracy have to face in times when the global system is being shaped. Unique is the fact that this book transcends theoretical digressions being at the same time embedded in the context of a particular society. The conclusions are based on an extensive empirical sources that the author of this book collected while conducting his research in France, where he had the honor of running discussions with French eminent scholars, politicians and people engaged in self-government. According to the reviewer of the book, professor Kazimierz Z. Sowa: „The collected research material presents itself as very interesting and valuable one; additionally its research method makes it a sui generis source of information. [...] The results provide us with a solid amount of knowledge about modern France whose problems go beyond the present ones.”