Urban Hierarchy Research Articles

Testing and Extending the Escalator Hypothesis: Does the Pattern of Post-migration Income Gains in Toronto Suggest Productivity and/or Learning Effects?

Workers earn incomes that are significantly higher in large metropolitan areas as compared with other locations in the urban hierarchy, reflecting both agglomeration economies and variation in the composition of skills and abilities across space. What benefits accrue to in-migrants to large urban areas? Fielding’s concept of the escalator region provides one way to evaluate the role of large metropolitan areas vis-à-vis the labour market, occupational mobility and migration. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether young adult migrants to Toronto aged 20–29 receive income benefits that are higher than those associated with other migrants or stayers. Results indicate that Toronto in-migrants receive an income benefit consistent with a productivity effect that is greater than the income benefit received by migrants elsewhere in the system or those who did not migrate. However, it does not appear that migration leads to an acceleration in income gains.

The Growth of non-Western cities: primary and secondary urban networking, c. 900-1900

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Chapter 1: Cities, Networks, and Cultures of Knowledge: A Global Overview Part 3 Part I: Urban Networking in the Early Indian Ocean Realm Chapter 4 Chapter 2: Port-City Networking in the Indian Ocean Commercial System Represented in Geographic and Cartographic Works in China and the Islamic West from c. 750 to 1500 Chapter 5 Chapter 3: Secondary Ports and Their Cults: Religious Innovation in the Port System of Greater Quangzhou (Southern China) in the 10th-12th Centuries Chapter 6 Chapter 4: Buddhist Conversions and the Creation of Urban Hierarchies in Vietnam and Cambodia, c. 1000-1200 Chapter 7 Chapter 5: Why Did Le Van Thinh Revolt? Buddhism and Political Integration in Early 12th Century Dai Viet Chapter 8 Chapter 6: Khuba and Muslim Networks in the Indian Ocean (Part II) - Timurid and Ottoman Engagements Chapter 9 Chapter 7: Urbanization and Ironworking in the Nubian State Tradition Part 10 Part II: Secondary Cities and Urban Networking in the Non-Western World, c. 1500-1900 Chapter 11 Chapter 8: Dengzhou and the Bohai Gulf in Seventeenth-Century Northeast Asia Chapter 12 Chapter 9: The Origins of the Post Designation System in the Qing Field Administration Network Chapter 13 Chapter 10: The Collapse of the English Trade Entrepots at Pulo Condore and Banjarmasin and the Legacy of Early British East India Company Urban Network-Building in Southeast Asia Chapter 14 Chapter 11: Taverns and Their Influence on the Suburban Culture of Late Nineteenth-Century Mexico City Chapter 15 Chapter 12: Networks, Railroads, and Small Cities in the Ottoman Balkans

Accessibility of cities in the digital economy

This paper introduces a new measure to approach the accessibility of places in the frame of the digital economy. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the Internet are not equally spread around places and this heterogeneity affects spatial configuration. Despite the wide societal changes due to ICTs and the extensive interest in accessibility studies, these two themes have not yet come together in order to study the digital accessibility (DA) of places. Adopting an infrastructural perspective and a potential accessibility framework, a DA measure – embedding different types of impedance distance functions – is calculated for cities in Europe. Spatial Interaction Model and Complex Network Analysis are employed to calibrate and validate the DA results. The outcome of this approach is a new urban hierarchy which reveals a core-periphery pattern in Europe owing to digital accessibility.

Post-1980s Multicultural Immigrant Neighbourhoods: Koreatowns, Spatial Identities and Host Regions in the Pacific Rim

Recent trends in migration across the Pacific Rim have suggested that neighbourhoods have become important sources of community identity, requiring a re-evaluation of the relationship between urban places and immigrants. Specifically, we argue that the notion of ethnic enclaves may not fit well with some of the newer, post-1980s immigrant populations in Pacific Rim cities. Using data from the cases of Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beijing, we argue that Korean settlement in these cities represents a new kind of immigrant neighbourhood that links Korean migrants with other migrant communities, consumers in the broader region and local government interests to produce places that mitigate increasingly multicultural and multi-ethnic urban hierarchies in their localities. This role has become particularly important regarding real estate and economic development strategies.

Del distrito industrial al distrito rural: implicaciones teóricas para el desarrollo territorial

As opposed to the traditional Marshallian Industrial District, the Rural District becomes a new concept for territorial development thanks to the qualitative changes of population occurring since 1970 in developed countries and since 1980 in Spain and Castilla-La Mancha. The urban areas are decreasing in importance and the urban hierarchy and center-periphery relations evolved into less hierarchic and multipolar relations. Rural-rural movements occurred in rural environments, from minor cores to region cores and/or higher populated cores as a reproduction of a center-periphery model at rural territorial level.

Micropolitan areas and urbanization processes in the US

Micropolitan areas, sometimes called mini-metros, occupy a unique position in the US urban hierarchy between low-density rural areas and high-density metropolitan areas. These county-based units—only recently recognized by the Office of Management and Budget—have urban centers whose populations range between 10,000 and 50,000. Evidence indicates that micropolitan areas are remarkably diverse in terms of their histories, attributes and economies. Today many of these places sit at the nexus of two opposing processes unfolding across the national urban landscape. Various forces promote continued urbanization and drive migration up through the hierarchy while other forces promote counterurbanization and drive migration down through the hierarchy. Micropolitan residents, who enjoy a compromise between rural living and urban living, will continue to be impacted by these twin processes. Much more research is needed to understand the nature of these situated forces and to trace the uneven geographic patterns of micropolitan growth and change during the upcoming years.

De wortels van de Randstad. Overheidsinvloed en stedelijke hiërarchie in het westen van Nederland tussen de 13de en 20ste eeuw

De wortels van de Randstad. Overheidsinvloed en stedelijke hiërarchie in het westen van Nederland tussen de 13de en 20ste eeuw

De wortels van de Randstad. Overheidsinvloed en stedelijke hiërarchie in het westen van Nederland tussen de 13de en 20ste eeuw

De wortels van de Randstad. Overheidsinvloed en stedelijke hiërarchie in het westen van Nederland tussen de 13de en 20ste eeuw

De wortels van de Randstad. Overheidsinvloed en stedelijke hiërarchie in het westen van Nederland tussen de 13de en 20ste eeuw

De wortels van de Randstad. Overheidsinvloed en stedelijke hiërarchie in het westen van Nederland tussen de 13de en 20ste eeuw

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.

New Towns Development Policy in Iran

The urban growth in Iran can be analyzed in reference to Rosto’s theory of economic growth (traditional society, transition period, and surge up, maturity and consumer society). In the period between 1922 -1952 the traditional economics (traditional society) collapses and the compradors capitalism emerges through Oil industry and financial markets (transition period). Cities in traditional period are functioning more in political and communicative aspects. In surge up period (1962-1979), Iran tried to affiliate to the world capitalist system, and all infrastructures needed for this purpose began to be implemented. In this period cities confronted a large scale of industrial development. As a consequence of intensification of correlation between center and premium and outward oriented development caused by petro-dollars and import policies, the expansion of urbanization in surge up period caused strengthening of the mono-metropolitan system for Tehran mega- city and some mother Cities in different regions. As a result many peripheral towns turned to be devastated. This lead to segregation of urban conformity in regional cities (Mashhad, Esfahan, Shiraz and Tabriz) to Tehran and the same happened in lower scale due to other cities in smaller towns. This failure in urban hierarchy makes cities and towns polarized. Four different quite different eras can be distinguished in urbanization process in Iran. 1. Between the two world wars or the transition period, New Towns in Iran were developed without any certain policy, mainly on the basis of a rural preliminary nucleus (Zahedan and Now-shahr) being fully developed cities at present. 2. After the Second World War up to middle years of 1962 decade the New Towns were developed still without any clear policy and just as a result of expansion of Oil and other industries development, on the basis of an urban nucleus with mono-based function as dormitory settlements. 3. From the time mentioned in 1962 decade up to 1979 ,upspring period, the New Towns were developed on the basis of usage of environmental resources and without a present nucleus ,with the main role as regional expansions and land speculation. 4. After the Islamic revolution 28 Satellite town without any preliminary nucleus, were established on the basis of refining of spatial organization of regional mother towns and Tehran Metropolis, along with more balanced distribution of growth in socio-economical life of the society. The plan forecasted a absorbing the extra population of mother towns predicted to be equal to 6 million persons up to the year 2017. Now after many years these towns being developed and the preliminary targets analyzed, it is being cleared that these towns has aroused many problems in settlement system of the country, in their first phase of presence.

The spatial influence of Tunisian cities via the diffusion of innovative multi-site companies

The spatial influence of cities can be apprehended from the way in which innovation diffuses, from the presence of modern and “rare” or out-of-the-ordinary activities, and from the networks formed by companies operating a number of sites. The analysis of these diffusion patterns casts light on the spatial dynamics in Tunisia in recent times, on the explicative models, on the changes occurring in the urban hierarchy, and on the inexorable decline of certain centres in favour of others.This article sets out to analyse the diffusion of innovative, modern and out-of-the-ordinary activities and their business networks between 1997 and 2004. It shows that the spatial diffusion observed is coherent with a hierarchical pattern on national scale, while on regional scale it is proximity that has the greatest influence. Further to this, the city of Sousse appears to be strengthening its position in relation to the second city, Sfax, while the coastal zone continues to be favoured by these processes, prefiguring the Tunisia of tomorrow.

Dwindling U.S. internal migration: Evidence of spatial equilibrium or structural shifts in local labor markets?

This paper examines whether the significant downward shift in U.S. gross migration rates after 2000 is indicative of the economy nearing a stationary spatial equilibrium characterized by relatively small population growth differentials. Nearing spatial equilibrium would imply that site-specific factors such as amenities and location within the urban hierarchy substantially subside in their influence on net-migration and relative population growth because their values have been capitalized into prices, causing interregional utility levels to become approximately equal. Yet, in an examination of U.S. counties, we find empirical evidence of only slight ebbing of natural amenity-based migration after 2000 and little slowing of population redistribution from peripheral towards core urban areas. Instead, the primary finding is a downward shift in the responsiveness of relative population growth to spatially asymmetric demand shocks post-2000, and associated increased responsiveness of local area labor supply, more consistent with European regional labor markets. Additional sensitivity analysis, including instrumental variable estimation, confirms the result. Quantile regression analysis suggests that our findings are not due to a difference in regional labor market tightness between the 1990s and post-2000.

Historicizing counterurbanization: In-migration and the reconstruction of rural space in Berkshire (UK), 1901–51

This article uses census data for Berkshire to argue that large-scale counterurbanization began much earlier than is generally recognized in some parts of southern England. This was not just movement down the urban hierarchy, which as Pooley and Turnbull have demonstrated was a long-term feature of England’s settlement system, but in some cases at least amenity-driven migration to rural areas of the kind increasingly recognized as a core component of recent counterurbanization. Despite a reduction of acreage Berkshire’s rural districts saw a 54% rise in population between 1901 and 1951. The sub-regional pattern of growth is assessed to gauge whether ‘clean break’ migration to the remote west of the county (which remained effectively out of commuting range from London throughout the period) was taking place, or whether counterurbanization was confined to the more accessible eastern districts. However, whilst population did increase in both west and east, it was in fact the central districts that grew most impressively. Three case study parishes are investigated in order to gauge the nature and consequences of counterurbanization at a local level. Professional and business migrants figure prominently, seeking to preserve and promote the rural attributes of their new communities, without however cutting their ties to urban centres. It is argued that migration to rural Berkshire in the first half of the twentieth century cannot adequately be described either as a form of extended suburbanization or an anti-metropolitan ‘clean break’. Rather, early counterurbanization marks the first stage on the long road to a post-productivist countryside, in which countryside becomes detached from agriculture, there is socio-economic convergence between town and country, and the ‘rural’ increasingly becomes defined by landscape and identity rather than economic function.

Sustainable Urban and Space Planning Strategy

This paper concludes and analyses the main contents of sustainable urban space researches, including various viewpoints and spatial conceptions. Key issues and trends of sustainable urban space planning are analyzed from the aspects of space, material, society and culture. This study will further clarify the characteristic development elements involved in urban planning guidelines, promote planning of an ecological and socially sustainable new urban, and enhance the completive edges of the urban in global urban hierarchies.

DOES CITY LOCATION DETERMINE URBAN POPULATION GROWTH? THE CASE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM CITIES IN KOREA

ABSTRACTAccessibility to large cities has been recognised as a significant factor for the growth of small and medium cities. The dependence on large cities is especially strong in the urban system with strong urban hierarchy. Based on this observation, this study attempts to examine the influence of city location in the Korean urban system on the growth of small and medium cities. The result shows that distance from Seoul is significant in explaining the overall urban population growth although distance from regional centres is important in explaining in‐ and out‐migration, suggesting that the spillover effect of Seoul is the dominant determinant of growth.

Hiérarchies urbaines comparées en Méditerranée : 1960-2000

Cet article cherche a expliciter le lien entre le developpement economique et les dynamiques urbaines en Mediterranee. Il montre, plus particulierement, que les pays avec un niveau de developpement plus eleve (France, Espagne, Italie) se caracterisent par une structuration de leurs systemes urbains moins hierarchisee ou les villes moyennes occupent une place importante dans la distribution rang-taille des villes. A l’inverse, les pays emergents a revenu intermediaire (Turquie, Egypte, Maroc) connaissent des processus de concentration demographique plus marques, avec un surdimensionnement des plus grandes villes dans leur systeme urbain. Un tel constat semble confirmer l’hypothese d’une evolution en cloche des hierarchies urbaines d’un pays, avec une phase de concentration de la population dans les grandes villes durant les phases de croissance economique rapide, suivie d’une diffusion de la croissance demographique en faveur des villes moyennes, au-dela d’un certain niveau de developpement.

Re-imagining City Waterfronts: A Comparative Analysis of Governing Renewal in Adelaide, Darwin and Melbourne

Urban waterfront regeneration is one of the largest changes to the structure of Australian and many world cities over the last two decades. There is no comparative research which evaluates their governing with particular attention to the relationship and responsibility of quasi-public agencies and local government. This study advances the competitive-city paradigm from a focus on global cities to an examination of inter-city urban competition between differently located cities in the urban hierarchy by comparing waterfront renewal projects located in Adelaide, Darwin and Melbourne. Through interview, policy and document analysis, the article offers preliminary insights on current and emergent governance arrangements involved in urban waterfront renewal. In an era of increasing inter-urban competition, the study reveals hybrid forms of urban governance are driving the planning and delivery of these three waterfront renewal projects. Further, there exists a ‘knotty’ tension between these models of urban governance and the capacity for meaningful consultation and participation between governments.

Interlocking Firm Networks in the German Knowledge Economy. On Local Networks and Global Connectivity


 
 
 the knowledge economy is a key driver of spatial development in metropolitan regions. a relational perspec- tive on its business activities emphasizes the importance of knowledge-intensive firms and their networking strategies. the aim of this paper is to analyse the spatial networking patterns created by the interaction of knowledge-intensive firms and to place these activities in the theoretical context of the knowledge economy. Our central question is which large-scale interlocking networks and functional urban hi- erarchies are produced by advanced Producer services and High-Tech firms located in Germany. The intra-firm loca- tional networks of these companies are analysed on three spatial scales: global, national and regional. the empirical findings show that the functional urban hierarchy in the german city system proves to be steeper than is claimed by the political debate on german Mega-city regions.