THE PERFORMATIVITY OF METROPOLIZATION: How Material-Discursive Practices Institutionalize the Prague Metropolitan Region
Abstract
This paper identifies a set of practices through which multiple actors, from the European Commission to local governments, perform the concept of the metropolitan region. It specifically investigates the practices and doings which bring this concept into being in the Prague metropolitan region of Czechia.
We uncover how the meanings associated with the concept of the metropolitan region have evolved through material-discursive practices constitutive of regional institutionalization. The paper unpacks five practices, which stand behind the initial stages of regional institutionalization: advocacy, framing, customization, implementation and evaluation.
It contributes to both the conceptualization and practical knowledge of metropolitan development, planning and institutionalization in a threefold way. First, in suggesting a set of institutionalization practices, it redirects attention towards what actors do.
Second, it highlights the role of materiality mutually intertwined with discursive elements. Finally, it documents how the intersection of multiple governance levels provides key actors with the resources needed to engage in the reconceptualization and institutionalization of the metropolitan region.