Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper discusses the literature that has influenced the concept of metropolitan area and the methods of its spatial identification. This analysis aims to reconstruct the concept in its first stage, to show its strong links with a specific period of capitalism and with a particular approach to planning and development. Moreover, it shows the transformations that have changed the economy and the territorial configurations of the society, explaining the inadequacy of the original concept with respect to the current period and to the more recent fields about the city and the process of urbanization.