Urban competitiveness in the knowledge based economy: Evolution paths of the Portuguese Metropolitan Areas

The chapter focuses on the growing territorial imbalances between urban regions in the light of the sometimes painful transition towards a knowledge-based economy. Drawing from the vast literature on urban competitiveness, it develops an integrative framework to asses and compare urban regions’ performance and assets in the emerging knowledge-based economy. In a second stage, the framework is applied to the Portuguese metropolis of Porto and Lisbon in order to illustrate how the current tendency toward de-industrialisation and knowledge-based development affects different types of cities. Using the framework concepts, the chapter concludes with policy recommendations to support national and urban policy makers towards urban competitiveness enhancement for our cases, whose rationales may constitute lessons to other similar contexts.