Creative Cities and the New Global Hierarchy

Abstract

The world experienced three major urbanization processes between the eleventh and the twentieth century. All three periods of city growth were associated with revolutionary improvements in the logistical systems. In large parts of the world the third logistical revolution (the Industrial Revolution) has not yet come to an end. In industrializing countries and regions urbanization is thus very rapid. Concurrently, a new and fourth logistical revolution is changing the economic, social and regional structure of the post-industrial parts of the world, leading to the creation of a new Creative Society. A key aspect of this development is the increasing role of creative and innovative city regions with global linkages. These regions now form a new supranational rank-size distribution, which is centred on a few conurbations in Europe, North America and East Asia. Most post-industrial economic development is taking place in a small number of highly ranked creative regions, while other regions are suffering from the “creative destruction” of their traditional industries. One consequence of this restructuring is increasing regional income inequalities in the post-industrial nations.