Buenos Aires as a gateway city: how it interlinks the Argentinean oil and gas sector globally

Abstract

ABSTRACTWorld cites are critical nodes in global production networks (GPNs). Being ‘gateways’, they serve as hubs for transport and logistics, industrial processing, corporate control and service provision as well as knowledge transmission. In this article, the concept of gateway cities is applied to Buenos Aires and the oil and gas sector. The author explains processes of concentration and dispersal, showing that Buenos Aires concentrates corporate control, whereas the other gateway elements can also be found at peripheral locations. The competition of gateway cities and places subordinate to them relates to debates about downsides of integration into the global economy that may result from a gateway’s ‘agglomeration shadow’. From a conceptual perspective, the article brings the GPN approach and the world city literature together so as to better understand the territoriality of GPNs and draw attention to city-to-hinterland relations. Being an open heuristic, the concept allows for incorporating experiences from the Global South and overcoming the bias of the world city literature towards advanced producer services and corporate control. Against the backdrop of the findings on Buenos Aires, the author suggests to better recognize a city’s attractiveness as a place to live and work.