在面對日益複雜的城市問題時，我們除了考慮物質性的面向之外，還需要更多地考慮非物質的面向，才能進行有效的掌控。城市管理學科的建立，可以彌補傳統城市規劃學科的不足，綜合地涵蓋以上兩種面向。本文對美國、中國大陸和臺灣的城市管理學科設置的背景和需求進行了綜合回顧、比較和分析，進而嘗試從學科設計的角度，基於大型複雜系統管理的邏輯，鋪陳城市管理學科的架構與內涵，包括研究課題以及科技、研究取向、理論和方法論等等。 本研究認爲，城市管理學科應當從以下幾個方面建立和完善：(1)城市管理應將其基本理論定位於複雜科學和決策科學，著重探討如何在複雜的城市系統中作出合理的決策；(2)城市管理學科應將其研究範疇限定爲對4個基本問題的探討，即城市如何運作、城市應如何運作、城市發展計畫與決策如何制定，以及城市發展計畫與決策應如何制定；(3)城市管理的基本研究工具和手段應包括決策分析、政策分析、規劃分析、城市建模和分析以及規劃支援系統。

Faced with increasingly more complex urban problems, we need to consider not only physical aspects, but also non-physical ones, in order to effectively manage these problems. The establishment of the city management discipline can be complementary to the traditional field of urban planning, covering both aspects. The present paper reviews, compares and analyzes the background and need of the establishment of the city management discipline in the US, Mainland China and Taiwan. From the viewpoint of discipline design and based on the logic of managing large, complex systems, we depict the framework and content of the city management discipline, including research issues, technologies, research orientations, theories and methodologies, etc. This research argues that the city management discipline should be improved through the following aspects: (1) Complexity science and decision science should be applied as the theoretical basis for city management in order to make rational decisions in the complex urban systems; (2) City management should define its research scope by answering four basic questions: How do cities work? How should cities work? How are plans and decisions made? And how should plans and decisions be made? (3) The basic methods and instruments for the research of city management may include decision analysis, policy analysis, planning analysis, city modeling and analysis, and planning support systems.