Cities In Globalization

Description:
Despite traditionally being a strong research topic in urban studies, inter-city relations had become grossly neglected until recently, when it was placed back on the research agenda with the advent of studies of world/global cities. More recently the 'external relations' of cities have taken their place alongside 'internal relations' within cities to constitute the full nature of cities. This collection of essays on how and why cities are connecting to each other in a globalizing world provides evidence for a new city-centered geography that is emerging in the twenty first century. 'Cities in Globalization' covers four key themes beginning with the different ways of measuring a 'world city network', ranging from analyses of corporate structures to airline passenger flows. Second is the recent European advances in studying 'urban systems' which are compared to the Anglo-American city networks approach. These chapters add conceptual vigour to traditional themes and provide findings on European cities in globalization. Thirdly the political implications of these new geographies of flows are considered in a variety of contexts: the localism of city planning, specialist 'political world cities', and the 'war on terror'. Finally, there are a series of chapters that critically review the state of our knowledge on contemporary relations between cities in globalization. 'Cities in Globalization' provides an up to date assembly of leading American and European researchers reporting their ideas on the critical issue of how cities are faring in contemporary globalization and is highly illustrated throughout with over forty figures and tables.

Review:
'Cities in Globalization is an important contribution that will be appreciated by both experienced and less experienced academics interested in better understanding world city networks and also by practitioners who want to deepen their professional perspective...a valuable reference aid for many economists, sociologists, urban planners, and geographers interested in investigating city network formation and development from a multidisciplinary point of view.' -- JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, VOL. 49, NO. 1, 2009

Table of Contents:
Prologue: A Lineage for Contemporary Inter-City Studies 1. Introduction: Cities in Globalization Part 1: World City Networks 2. Globalization and the World City System: Preliminary Results from a Longitudinal Data Set 3. Airline Passenger Flows through Cities: Some New Evidence 4. World City Networks from 'Below': International Mobility and Inter-City Relations in the Global Investment Banking Industry 5. World Cities and the Internationalization of Design Services Part 2: Inter-City Relations in Networks and Systems 6. Urban Network Development Under Conditions of Uncertainty 7. City Networks as Tools for Competitiveness and Sustainability 8. Firm Linkages, Innovation and the Evolution of Urban Systems 9. The Metropolitanization of the European Urban and Regional System Part 3: Politics in Inter-City Relations 10. Positioning Cities in the World: Towards a Politics of Flow 11. Political World Cities: Where Flows through Entwined Multi-State and Transnational Networks Meet Places 12. Inter-City Relations and the 'War on Terror' Part 4: Rethinking Cities in Globalization 13. Reading the City in a Global Digital Age: Between Topographic Representation and Spatialized Power Projects 14. Poststructuralism, Power and the Global City 15. The Mismatch between Concepts and Evidence in the Study of a Global Urban Network 16. Cities within Spaces of Flows: Theses for a Materialist Understanding of the External Relations of Cities 17. How Cities Scientifically (do not) Exist. Methodological Appraisal of Research on Globalizing Processes of Intercity Networking

Author Biography:
Loughborough University, UK Ghent University, Belgium