Joël Thibert is an Urban Planner, Consultant and Co-founder of Walk the region.

• Contents: Foreword, Jameson W. Doig; Preface; From the local to the regional: an introduction; Conceptual and methodological framework; Measuring regional collaboration and its effects; Regional collaboration from cradle to cradle: the case of the Bay Area; Region-hood without regionalism: the case of Greater Montreal; Regionalism, governance and resilience across borders: the Niagara cross-laboratory; Regional collaboration across borders: a comparative analysis; Convening for the future: the distant impacts of regional collaboration; Appendices; Index.

’Joel Thibert’s ambitious new book blends large-N statistical analyses of the effects of regional collaboration on American and Canadian metropolitan issues with careful case studies of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Montreal archipelago, and cross-border Niagara. Notwithstanding an appropriate degree of caution and modesty, he arrives at some memorable counter-intuitive conclusions: voluntary collaboration can be counter-productive; imposed metropolitan structures can undermine regional problem-solving.’ Andrew Sancton, The University of Western Ontario, Canada ’Into a field long on presumption and short on actionable evidence comes Joël Thibert’s ambitious and meticulous study of how regional collaboration matters - or not - to regional economic, social and environmental outcomes. Combine his original database of metropolitan collaborations with theoretically fair-minded and empirically forthright insights from the field: et voilà, a worthy new voice in regional analysis.’ Kathryn A. Foster, University of Maine at Farmington, USA ’The Region is a blurry and fuzzy concept, in particular when one looks at it from a policy perspective. Joël Thibert’s book explores the case for studying regional collaboration, focusing in particular on its extrinsic importance: does it make a difference in terms of providing public goods and how and under what conditions can urban regions be successfully governed? The author presents critical evidences based on an original mix of quantitative and qualitative research methodology which deals with central research questions in the field.’ Valeria Fedeli, Politecnico di Milano, Italy