Global Urban Hierarchy Research Articles

Exploring the effects of coworking in two European cities: Financialisation flows and consumption patterns in Athens and Berlin

With the continuous deregulation of state functions in processes of neoliberal urban production, coworking spaces have emerged as autonomous actors in processes of urban development, as they appear to conglomerate flows of freelancers, startuppers, remote workers, digital nomads and financial capital from private investors and large corporations. As such, these actors could play an important role in the organisation of urban activities that could have multiple impacts on the urban economy. Tracing the effects of coworking spaces in metropolitan cities, this qualitative analysis is focused on coworking spaces in Athens and Berlin, two cities characterised by different development trajectories, socioeconomic and cultural contexts and positions within the European and global urban hierarchy. The results reveal that coworking spaces demonstrate high levels of adaptability to the specific characteristics of the urban contexts in which they are located and play a dual role by (1) shaping and channelling the consumption patterns of coworkers while also (2) operating as mediators and facilitators of multilevel private investment and financialisation processes.

New economy and national city size distribution

This paper examines the effects of the new economy on national city size distribution in 102 countries. Results show that the new economy has significant effects on city size distributions and such effects are heterogeneous across countries. Human capital contributes to the polarization of city size distribution in developed countries and service-dominated countries, while it helps to equalize city size distribution in industrial-dominated countries. While innovation promotes an equalized city size distribution in general, globalization promotes polarization and then equalization of city size distribution. Information and communication technology triggers an equalized followed by a polarized city size distribution, and has contributed to an equalized city size distribution in service-dominated countries. It is evident that thriving new economic processes are changing the global urban hierarchy and reshaping national city size distribution. This study facilitates an in-depth understanding of the effects of the new economy on city size distribution, which is of great importance to promote more equitable development and urbanization.

What Affects the Economic Resilience of China's Yellow River Basin Amid Economic Crisis-From the Perspective of Spatial Heterogeneity.

This paper contributes to the study of regional economic resilience by analyzing the dynamic characteristics and influence mechanisms of resilience from the perspective of spatial heterogeneity. This paper focuses on the resistance and recoverability dimensions of resilience and analyzed the dynamic changes in economic resilience in China’s Yellow River Basin in response to the 2008 economic crisis. The multi-scale geographical weighted regression model was utilized to examine the effect of key factors on regional economic resilience. Our findings show the following: (1) The resistance of the Yellow River Basin to the financial crisis was high; however, the recoverability decreased significantly over time. (2) The spatial heterogeneity of driving factors was significant, and they had different effect scales on economic resilience. Related variety, government agency, environment, and opening to the global economy had a significant effect on economic resilience only in a specific small range. Specialization, unrelated variety, and location had opposite effects in different regions of the Yellow River Basin. (3) Specialization limited the area’s resistance to shock but enhanced the recoverability. Related variety improved regional economic resilience. Unrelated variety was not conducive to regional resistance to shock and had opposite effects on the recoverability in different regions. (4) Government agency and financial market promoted regional economic resilience. Environment pollution and resource-based economic structure limited regional economic resilience. Opening to the global economy and urban hierarchy limited regional resistance to shock, but strong economic development had the opposite effect of improved regional resistance. The location in the east of the Yellow River Basin enhanced the recoverability; however, the location in the west limited the recoverability.

Global Cities of the East: a conceptual and empirical analysis of foreign studies

The article is aimed at defining the findings and concepts of the researchers of the Eastern global cities and highlighting the features of "East Asian" global cities. For the most of the twentieth century, this area was one of the least urbanized areas in the world, but now cities are growing rapidly and becoming important centers in the regional and global urban hierarchy. The researchers of the Eastern countries identified 16 major megacities claiming the title of world cities, namely Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Seoul, Busan, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Istanbul. Tokyo on this list, followed by Hong Kong, is included in the "Global City", while Seoul and Taipei are included in the ranking of world cities as national models of "recently industrialized countries". These and other issues related to the global cities of the East are based on research and analysis by foreign and Russian authors.

From Manufacturing to Advanced Services: The (Uneven) Rise and Decline of Mediterranean City-Regions

Uneven changes in the global urban hierarchy have given way to new forms of relationships between urban and rural areas based on complementarities, cooperative and specialized exchange of services and goods, abandoning the additive processes of growth guided by industrialization and urbanization. Representing a distant notion from traditional concepts in regional studies such as 'compact cities' or 'suburbs', 'gravitation' or 'hierarchy', the 'city-region' paradigm has stimulated different visions to be recomposed within the 'sustainability' framework. With global changes, the 'mega-city region' model has starting to take the lead in the development of contemporary urban agglomeration. In this study, considerations over the emergence of this urban model in the Mediterranean region will be presented to investigate the relationship between dispersed urbanization and consolidating southern European city-regions. While Mediterranean cities have been considered for long time as ‘ordinary’ cities, rather distant from the 'globalized' northern urban models, most of these cities are characterized by distinctive socioeconomic traits possibly open to competition and globalization. The present contribution describes the emergence of a Mediterranean urban area, Athens, as a new 'city-region' in the context of urbanization processes in Greece and in the Mediterranean basin as a whole. One of the clearest indications of urban competitiveness amongst emerging and established large city-regions is the fight for hosting mega-events. The final objective of the study is to understand how the efforts for increasing urban competitiveness are impacting new forms of city-regions, mainly based on low-density settlements reflecting discontinuous urbanization.

The role of creative cluster Savamala in Belgrade repositioning in global hierarchies

Urban competitiveness in post-industrial society largely depends on the strength of city's creative economy. It is represented by its position in global urban hierarchies, as an indicator of its importance and attractiveness for people and companies. Creative clusters present a way to stimulate creative economy in the city because the spatial concentration of creative companies and people additionally stimulates exchange of ideas and knowledge. Article explores complex dynamic between creative economy, cities and global hierarchies. The focus is on the role of creative clusters in the process of global positioning, especially in the case of Belgrade. The city has significantly improved its position in the global urban hierarchy - from a non-existing node in 2000, to the 'beta' level of global cities in 2008 (according to GaWC global urban hierarchy). Furthermore, in just four years (2008-2012), Belgrade improved its rank for three positions. This period overlaps with several interesting events - e.g. the initial phase of the largest regional creative festival and the development of a creative cluster in Savamala. Consequently, the article will emphasize the importance of this district in the global repositioning of Belgrade.

Spatial hierarchy and emerging typologies inside world city network

Abstract The first part of the paper provides a new approach to measuring a spatial structure of world city network (WCN). Based upon the results of media- popular ‘global city rankings’ produced by several international think tanks, our calculation allowed to reveal global urban hierarchy and identify several subnetworks inside of world cities. The second part of the paper devotes to recent discussions on nature of globalization and urban macrosystems, bearing in mind ranking results. It is shown that a typological approach can provide more insights to a role of city as part of WCN from functional and relationships prospective.

City Branding as a Response to Global Intercity Competition

AbstractGlobalisation is dramatically changing the context of urban communities and the premises for urban development policy. In the context of global intercity competition, cities' major goal is to increase their competitiveness, in which the positioning and attractiveness of a city have a critical function. Attraction‐oriented development strategies aim at effective absorption of external resources from the global space of flows. At the core of attraction strategy are business promotion activities with appealing incentives, but it is assumed that such a competition is risky and may lead to a race to the bottom. Therefore the emphasis is increasingly on less costly and more synergistic city marketing, which utilises city branding and “city profiling” that aim at attract high value‐adding services or high‐tech firms. This paper proposes a city attraction hypothesis that states that global intercity competition is essentially about a city's ability to attract the highest possible value from global flows of values in order to promote urban development. The result of such a global intercity competition determines cities' functions and positions in the global division of labour and thus in the global urban hierarchy, and ultimately determines their ability to increase prosperity and welfare in urban communities.

‘Queen of the Bristol Channel Ports’: the intersection of gender and civic identity in Cardiff, c.1880–1914

This article explores how civic identity could shape, and be shaped by, gender distinctions during the period of commercial and municipal development. It argues that women's relationship to the urban scene was more nuanced than theories of exclusion imply, gender and civic identity being mutually constitutive. Through the case study of Cardiff, the article advocates the need for deeper analysis of the way regional and national complexities permeated gendered civic sentiments. Notions of femininity in Wales had been defined in opposition to England ever since the 1847 ‘Treachery of the Blue Books’. However, Cardiff's relatively anglicised status and aspirations in the local and global urban hierarchy meant there was often a desire by civic leaders to emulate what was occurring elsewhere, or to develop their own definition of Welsh femininity. Consequently, these competing gender ideals underlined Cardiff's civic and national—Welsh and British—identity.

We're Number Two! Beta Cities and the Cultural Economy

Given that not every city can be an alpha city in today's global urban hierarchy, what options do beta cities such as Toronto or Chicago realistically have in the cultural economy? Put differently, if cultural capitals such as New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo play critically important roles in certifying and establishing new trends in theatre, fashion, and other cultural industries, how can beta cities compete? Recent research suggests that the spatial distribution of cultural industries strongly resembles one of urban hierarchy, where the institutions and infrastructure that support the production and diffusion of new products are largely concentrated in only a few world cities. The implication of this hierarchy is that there is a clearly defined top tier that lower ranked, beta, cities look to for inspiration as they seek to improve their standing. Comparative case studies of musical theatre scenes in Toronto and New York provide insights into an alternative functional perspective on urban hierarchies and the complementarities among cities. This approach makes a distinction between development and diffusion activities, thereby recognizing opportunities for beta cities as important sites for experimentation and innovation, supported by attributes that could be seen as unique (and localized) strengths in an increasingly global cultural economy.

Ulsan, South Korea: A Global and Nested ‘Great’ Industrial City

Ulsan, South Korea is home to the world's largest auto production complex and shipyard, and its second biggest petrochemicals combine. Drawing upon Jacobs' Contextualized Model of Urban-Regional Development, this article shows how Ulsan's growth path towards becoming one of the world's Great Industrial Cities was decisively shaped by both global and nested factors. While the weights of the various tiers from the global to local have fluctuated over time, no one level has had primacy. Through Ulsan this study seeks to introduce the concept of Great Industrial City and in the process: 1) remind scholars and practitioners about the continued importance of industrial cities for national economies and in global capitalism; 2) demonstrate how the world's city-regions have been decisively shaped by both international forces and embedded/nested factors; 3) enhance the English language reader's knowledge of South Korean urban areas; and 4) encourage scholars to more seriously consider the manufacturing sector when classifying world cities and delineating the global urban hierarchy, and thereby, expand the global-nested city debate beyond merely the analyzing of large financial centers.

Gendering reurbanisation: women and new‐build gentrification in Toronto

AbstractFor over a decade beginning in the mid 1990s, Toronto, Canada experienced a massive wave of condominium development. Women make up a high percentage of condominium purchasers and condominiums are extensively marketed to young, professional urban women. In grappling with this phenomenon, this paper constructs a gendered social geography of reurbanisation and new‐build gentrification in Toronto, through qualitative research into women's experiences as downtown condominium owners. Examining both the gendered ideologies that have shaped Toronto's condominium boom, and the narratives of condominium developers and owners, this paper illustrates the gendered dimensions of city building and everyday life in the context of reurbanization. I argue that the neoliberal rationality of contemporary entreprenuerial city building is constituted, in part, by gender. Gender ideologies inform the processes of privatisation, commodification, and securitisation of urban space and urban life in the city's quest for a competitive position in the global urban hierarchy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Geographies of investment: How do the wealthy build new houses in Accra, Ghana?

World-city researchers have paid scant attention to cities in Africa. Van der Merwe (2004) emphasises that Sub-Saharan Africa is a huge information lacuna: African cities are often overlooked and portrayed as isolated and lower down in the global urban hierarchy. By some criteria African cities may appear isolated, but it cannot be concluded that African cities are irrelevant to the global economy. At the other extreme, King (2004) proposes that all cities be considered as world cities. This may be stretching the reality for most cities in Africa, considering that most states have not been fully liberalised. The reality for those cities leading in liberalisation efforts (e.g., Accra, Gaborone, Johannesburg) is likely to be somewhere in between. A more middle ground, argued by some scholars (e.g., Robinson, 2002; Rogerson, 2005), may be more on the mark. As Robinson (2002: 538) emphasises that when viewed from within these cities--"places allegedly off the global map"--the global economy is of enormous significance in shaping their fortunes and futures. There is large body of literature emerging on recent urban development and processes of land and housing marketisation and economic globalisation in developing countries (Wu, 2000; Rakodi, 1997). Urban development and processes has made the connections between the international and local dimensions of residential change more salient and reminiscent of the colonial period, when international factors heavily determined residential development. Researchers (e.g., Simone, 2004; Gugler, 2004) emphasise that African urbanites draw increasingly on material resources that can span the globe and probably more so today after twenty years of liberalisation policies. National data confirm this trend: the Government of Ghana found that aggregate income is only 64 percent of what households are spending (GSS 1996:57-60). Remittance flows account for much

New York as a Global Creative Hub: A Competitive Analysis of Four Theories on World Cities

How New York City has maintained its position atop the global urban hierarchy as a leading player in the world and national economy is part of the broader discussion on why cities grow and why some remain at the top of the heap decade on decade. There are several dominant theories explaining New York City’s success, most notably those that argue the city is a center of command and control or managerial elite and is a global hub of finance and its related services. Yet an emerging framework explaining New York City’s dominant position argues for the importance of global creative centers. From an occupational analysis of these competing hypotheses emerges a picture of New York City as a great bastion of creativity and cultural and artistic production. These results provide a unique perspective on New York City’s position in the world hierarchy of cities and new opportunities for economic development strategies.

State policy and the globalization of Beijing: emerging themes

An emerging body of work has attempted to capture the formation and functions of the emerging global cities in Asia to add a new dimension to the global city literature. With economic reforms and open door policy, Chinese cities have become more and more integrated with the global economy and the global urban hierarchy, spearheaded by Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. This paper analyzes the salient features of emerging global cities in China and highlights the role of the state in globalizing Chinese cities. We examine the efforts of Beijing to make itself into a global city: attracting foreign investment, building a world-class central business district (CBD), constructing Zhongguancun as “China's Silicon Valley,” and preparing for the 2008 Olympic Games. These themes are state-directed and involve many aspects of globalizing the city, which testifies to the difference in the process and mechanisms of the globalization in Chinese cities from their counterparts in the developed countries.

Black Holes and Loose Connections in a Global Urban Network

This paper introduces the concept of black holes and loose connections in a global urban hierarchy. Black holes are defined as large cities, with a population of over 3 million, that are not classified as world cities. The paper draws upon a classification that uses advanced producer services as an indicator of world city status. Large, nonworld cities are identified, and provisional ideas about explaining their position are outlined. Connectivity and population data are used in a simple regression analysis to identify loose connections: cities whose connectivity is less than that predicted by their population.

Power and Position in the World City System

Globalization has renewed interest in the place and role of cities in the international system. Recent literature proposes that the fate of cities (and their residents) has become increasingly tied to their position in international flows of investment and trade. Data on the branch locations of the world’s 500 largest multinational enterprises in 2000 are subjected to two broad types of network analytic techniques in order to analyze the “world city system.” First, 3,692 cities are analyzed in terms of three measures of point centrality. Second, blockmodeling techniques are employed to generalize further about the positions and roles played by cities in the system. These techniques are used to trace out the structure of the world city system, locate cities in the context of a global urban hierarchy, and explore the degree to which this diverges from a simple one‐to‐one matching of cities onto nation‐states in the world system.

Assessing central places in a global age: on the networked localization strategies of advanced producer services

Most of the assumptions made in classic versions of central place-theory make these theories ill-suited to describe the spatial outline of a global urban hierarchy (i.e. a network of world cities). In this paper, a systematic overview of possible alterations to classic central place-theories is presented to advance understanding on how we might assert this emerging global hierarchy. Apart from the observation that new (global) levels of central places are needed, we discern three alterations. First, the informationalization of the global economy implies a whole gamut of new central place functions when compared to the industrial phase of a capitalist system. Second, emphasis is increasingly on city–city relations rather than city–hinterland relations, which requires a revision of the concept ‘hinterland’. Third, hierarchical equivalence does no longer imply functional equivalence, i.e. there are processes of functional specialization between the central places of our global age. The totality of these observations implies that a different approach is required to assess the localization strategies of service firms within the context of the world city-network.

Spatial Segregation in Seven Cities: A Longitudinal Study of Home Ownership, 1971-91

Globalisation has been associated with the development of 'command node' cities in the global economy (Friedman, 1986; Sassen, 1991). Some scholars have argued that the social and spatial structure of such cities has been polarised, because of changing demand for labour and land. A number of debates have developed around this hypothesis, challenging the general applicability of these socio-economic trends to all global cities (e.g. Bruegel, 1996; Hamnett, 1996), while the spatial changes in the housing markets of global cities have been shown to be varied (Marcuse & van Kempen, 2000). They are heavily dependent on local context, but always associated with increased segregation of rich and poor, whether through displacement of the poor from the urban core (Smith, 1989) or through their displacement within it (Lyons, 1996). The present paper suggests that much can be learnt about urban change in an era of globalisation, from analysis of the differences between global and other cities. The hypothesis is that spatial restructuring of housing markets in London, a global city, is likely to have important similarities with those of other cities in England, which occupy lower positions in a global urban hierarchy. A comparison of the extent of socio-spatial clustering of home ownership in London, with six English cities at various levels of the urban hierarchy is presented, which partly supports the hypothesis, comparing change over a 20-year period, based on cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of ONS Longitudinal Study data for the years 1971, 1981 and 1991. Findings were that, despite its more socially polarised labour market, London's home ownership market was less spatially segregated than that of other cities in the sample. Implications for global city theory, and for the interpretation of the dynamics of other urban markets, are discussed.

RANKING WORLD CITIES: MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND THE GLOBAL URBAN HIERARCHY

World-city literature often relies on a priori assumptions rather than quantifiable measures to discern the global urban hierarchy. In search of comparable international indicators, many studies use the corporate headquarters of multinational corporations (MNCs) as primary locational data. Recognizing that MNCs play a dominant role in the global economy, we argue that reliance on headquarters locations alone distorts the contours of the urban hierarchy. The method overstates the importance of urban centers in the developed countries and economies dominated by large corporations; conversely, it underestimates the importance of lower-level circuits of regional communication, transaction centers in developing countries, and cities in less-centralized economies. This bias is not simply a technical matter: it asserts the power of the core economies, while understating the diversity and complexity of global interactions. We propose to include MNC first-level subsidiary locations in a more refined measure of world-city status.