This paper draws attention to the burgeoning phenomenon of Metrophilia, the fashionable yet uncritical embrace of city-centric narratives of development in place-based policymaking. Within this narrative, City Deals have emerged as mechanisms that pit places in competition with each other through the promotion of local economic growth compacts. Despite being launched with great fanfare as localised victories, City Deals raise important questions regarding the shape of the UK state system and the objectives of spatial policy. Addressing these concerns, and focusing on the tripartite political arrangement in the UK’s devolved administrations nations, we argue that political tensions between nationalism and city-regionalism may be exacerbated through deal-making approaches.

中文翻译：

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多中心国家的城市交易：英国大都会的空间和政治

本文引起了人们对 Metrophilia 新兴现象的关注，即在以地方为基础的政策制定中以城市为中心的发展叙事的时尚但不加批判的拥抱。在这种叙述中，城市交易已成为通过促进地方经济增长契约来相互竞争的机制。尽管作为本地化的胜利大张旗鼓地推出，城市交易提出了关于英国国家体系的形态和空间政策目标的重要问题。针对这些担忧，并关注英国权力下放国家的三方政治安排，我们认为民族主义和城市-地区主义之间的政治紧张局势可能会通过交易方式加剧。