The book addresses the situation of the urban world in Spain and Portugal in the first quarter of the 21st century. Cities and metropolitan areas have become the key to understanding the organization of the territory and the economic system in the Iberian Peninsula. Iberian cities drive financial-based business, and they constitute the main centers of commerce and tourism, since urban and economic organization are presented as two directly related variables. This reality is defined by the primacy of three main cities (Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon), followed by six metropolitan areas with around one or two million inhabitants (Porto, Bilbao, Zaragoza, Valencia, Seville, and Malaga). As in the large capitals, problems of income inequality and access to housing, mobility, and government also affect the remaining regional urban systems.
This book examines these urban areas through six major themes, which are developed in more than 25 chapters. The themes are urbanization, inequality, finance and housing markets, consumers and new residents, mobility, and governance. Contributions from leading geographers and urban planners from the most important universities of the Iberian Peninsula comprise this overview of metropolitan areas of Spain and Portugal.
Rubén C. Lois-González is Professor of Geography at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and Vice President of the International Geographical Union (UGI). He has been Visiting Professor at universities in France, Norway, and Italy and the Federal University of Bahia-UFBA (Brazil). He is Principal Investigator of various European Union and international cross-border cooperation projects. He is Author of nearly 200 books and book chapters, and more than 160 articles in academic journals. Notable among them are Scripta Nova, Finisterra, Annales de Géographie, Sud-Ouest Européen, Die Erde, European Planning Studies, Land, Use & Policy, Revista Geografia del Norte Grande, Mobilities, Territory, Politics and Governance, Sociologia Ruralis, and Gender, Place & Culture. He directed 39 doctoral theses. He has been Dean of the Faculty of Geography and History of Santiago de Compostela. He is Member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Association of Geography (1997-2011 and from 2017 to today) and Founder of the College of Geographers of Spain (1999).
Jose A. Rio Fernandes is Geographer and Full Professor at the University of Porto. He is Coordinator of the research group "Cities and Territorial Development" at CEGOT, investigating on urban geography, urbanism, and local and regional development. He is President of the General Assembly of FAPAS (Portuguese Association for the Biodiversity Conservation) and Member of the Regional Conseil of the North of Portugal. He was President of the Portuguese Geographers Association (2010-2016) and its General Assembly (2016-2020 and 2020-2022). He is Author of more than 200 scientific publications, including articles in BAGE, Cities, GOT, Land, Sud-Ouest Européen, Sustainability, Urban Geography, and Urban Research & Practice, and 40 books, including two dictionaries. He has been involved in several international investigation projects and was Visiting Teacher in Angers, Berlin, Presidente Prudente, Natal, and Rio de Janeiro. He writes weekly for the JN newspaper and is commentator for Porto Canal tv.
