The Rise Of Europe's Regions

Expressing ideas similar to those in Joel Garreau's Nine Nations of North America, this is macro-planning at its largest. "This is the economic spine of Europe, limned from space like a blue-glowing X-ray, a megalopolis seven centuries in the making. Here is the greatest concentration of big cities on the globe, the greatest production capacity per square kilometer, the densest commercial traffic....It is a remarkable feat. But behind this story lies another, no less dynamic, even if less visible. That’s the rise of Europe’s regions. Even as the European Union redraws its map, parts of Europe are charting their own path toward union—not in large or in lock step with all others, but in bits and bites among themselves. The sheer expanse of today’s borderless Europe is indeed breathtaking and, for some, intimidating."