Article City regionalism as geopolitical processes: A new framework for analysis Andrew E.G. Jonas University of Hull, UK Sami Moisio University of Helsinki/RELATE Centre of Excellence, Finland Abstract This article sets out a new conceptual framework for investigating how city regionalism is constituted as a variegated set of geopolitical processes operating within and beyond the national state. Our approach highlights: (1) the different forms of territorial politics through which city regionalism is conjoined with broader visions of the national state; (2) the material and territorial arrangements which support such a conjuncture; and (3) the political actors enabling city regionalism and the national state to come together within a geopolitical frame of reference. Keywords city regions, geopolitics, national territory, political actors, the state I Introduction Processes of city-region building have attracted considerable attention from urban and regional scholars. If progress already has been made towards an understanding of the processes of agglomeration and accumulation that underpin city-regional growth (Scott, 2001a, 2001b), researchers have also examined the correspond- ing structures of collective provision and wel- fare that sustain social reproduction within city regions (Jonas and Ward, 2007; Etherington and Jones, 2009). Attention is now turning to the political construction of city regionalism in dif- ferent national contexts (Dierwechter, 2008; Hall and Pain, 2006; Herrschel and Newman, 2002; Rodrı ´guez-Pose, 2008; Kantor et al., 2012). In so doing, scholars have exposed the hand of the national state in shaping new city- regional configurations of political authority and public administration (Brenner, 2002; Har- rison, 2007; Harrison and Hoyler, 2015). As Storper has put it: City regions also develop in part as a result of politics. They are shaped by national policies in different ways, and in turn, they enter into national political and social life in a variety of ways that are often not apparent to the naked eye. (Storper, 2013: 10) Corresponding author: Andrew E.G. Jonas, Geography, School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK. Email: A.E.Jonas@hull.ac.uk Progress in Human Geography 1–21 ª The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0309132516679897 phg.sagepub.com at Helsinki University Library / University of Helsinki on November 25, 2016 phg.sagepub.com Downloaded from