Theoretical foundations of urban growth and metropolitan dynamics: towards an integrated conceptual framework for the analysis of emerging territories

Abstract

The rapid evolution of urban areas today poses challenges that go beyond the simple issue of the demographic and spatial growth of cities. In the Moroccan context, the development of metropolitan roles is now accompanied by new requirements in terms of territorial competitiveness, governance, adjustment to vulnerabilities and sustainability. However, studies on these changes are frequently structured around separate theoretical perspectives, which hinders the understanding of the links between urban expansion, metropolitan functioning and territorial resilience. This article aims to fill this gap by developing a conceptual framework for addressing these phenomena in a unified way. The study is based on a narrative and critical analysis of the books, drawing on major works on city economics, agglomeration economies, economic geography, metropolization, territorial governance, and urban resilience. The study stresses the complementarity of various methods while highlighting their limits when they are used in isolation. On the basis of this cross-reading, the authors suggest a conceptual framework articulated around five dimensions: the structuring elements of urban expansion, metropolitan potentialities, and territorial management policy. Urban resilience and the sustainability of territorial development. The relevance of the model is to link these dimensions in order to demonstrate how territories can convert urban growth into a more balanced and flexible evolution process. The suggested approach thus offers a theoretical foundation for the future study of the dynamics of Moroccan metropolises and for their empirical validation.

Classification JEL: R11, R12, R58, O18, H70

Paper type: Theoretical Research