Powering the world city system: energy industry networks and interurban connectivity

Abstract

The authors explore energy as an alternative but important landscape of globalisation, where spatial geometries of global power and control are defined by particular historic and contemporary geopolitical and territorial forces. From the application of a social network analysis to energy corporate locations, it is argued that network geographic, relational, and hierarchical perspectives are all critical in enhancing understandings of the world city network. Some similarities with advanced producer services networks are noted, as well as important differences which are shaped by a combination of resource production and consumption, and geopolitical and economic power relations. The outcome is a dynamic set of interlocking local, regional, and global city globalisations.