Crecimiento y crisis en la región metropolitana de Madrid: significado y contradicciones de la economía del conocimiento

Abstract

The metropolitan region of Madrid has undergone significant changes in the last two decades, establishing it as the main economic centre with command functions in Southern Europe. This has resulted in a rapid increase in its rates of production and consumption, the size of its immigrant population and the processes of low-density suburbanisation (sprawl) becoming more common. But this trend, which can be linked to its prominent position in the world cities network, has been accompanied by significant social and environmental costs, an abrupt crisis since 2008 and the deepening of socio-spatial inequalities within. The progressive growth of the knowledge economy is a good indicator of this type of essentially contradictory process which signals the integration of megacities into global capitalism and the associated territorial changes.