The metropolitan area — also called the urban region or city-region — is now the dominant form of human settlement. The question of how urban regions should be governed, and of how to plan their future growth, has been hotly debated for over a century with no resolution. This course provides an overview of these issues. It begins with a discussion of what we mean by "region," why the regional scale (as distinct from the national, provincial, or local) is understood to be useful and necessary, and how we should think about governance and policymaking at the regional scale. It then surveys the historical evolution and contemporary relevance of six leading perspectives on regional planning and governance. The course concludes by looking at the prospects for regionalism, with a focus on the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).