Abstract
Medium-sized cities are a cornerstone of Europe’s polycentric urban landscape. Characterized by a host of physical and functional linkages with their rural surroundings, they play a key role in the balanced spatial development of their wider city-region. While there is a need for spatial policies to account for these urban-rural linkages, the context for urban policy-making is increasingly fragmented. Spatial planning at the city level is marked by a complex web of vertical and horizontal relations between urban and rural, state and non-state actors at various territorial levels who have to interact in the elaboration of integrated spatial development solutions. This paper builds on MLG theory to identify the various vertical and horizontal factors that impact on the formulation of integrated spatial policies at the local level. It presents an early draft of the theoretical framework for my doctoral project under the working title “Multi-level Spatial Governance in Urban Contexts: A Comparative Perspective on European Intermediate Cities”.