Nowadays, in urban studies field we experimented a lack of effectivness in the explanations based on consolidate paradigms for several dynamics ongoning on European territories. In this issue of Ciudades, we propose a reflection about scales as analysis tool for planners and reserarchers in contemporary city. Among them, we focus on those intermediate scales (sub-regional, inter-municipal and district/neighborhood) as ‘giusta distanza’ (adequate dimensions) to detect (i.) trends in the transformation of the post-metropolitan territories (ii.) weaknesses in their development patterns and (iii.) new interpretative figures for phenomena that would be not visible in analysis based on conventional scales. Therefore, different contributions will support the debate on the effectiveness – and the risks – related to the images and descriptive readings of the contemporary urban spaces based on these “meso” or intermediate dimensions, disconnected from the current institutional borders. This task is even more relevant in this moment, in which urban and regional planning deals with the governance of urbanized regions and the transformation of extended metropolitan areas.

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