Porto Metropolitan Area (1992-2022)

Fernando de Sousa; Ricardo Rocha

This two-volume work aims to present the activity and critically reflect on the first thirty years of the Porto Metropolitan Area (AMP), an intermunicipal entity created in 1992, initially composed of nine municipalities, whose collective territory, prior to its institutional structuring, was already (also) known as the Porto Metropolitan Area, with the Institution sharring its name with the territory it oversees. A relatively recent history, inscribed in the decentralizing desire of the democratic regime born in 1974, but with roots founded in the Middle Ages and the first forms of intermunicipal cooperation between Porto and the main “counties” in the region. In short, this work has as its object of study the Metropolitan Area of Porto, making known the way in which the Institution was built, evolved and (inter)acted in the metropolitan region, in the context of the profound changes that, in the span of just three decades, took place in Portugal and worldwide at the most diverse levels, and the multiple legal frameworks that on several occasions granted it new powers, expanded its composition – currently, 17 contiguous municipalities – and modified its internal structure, making AMP one of the most decisive agents for the social-economic development of its territory and its national and international affirmation.