Global city-regions: trends, theory, policy (original) (raw)
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Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 2019
I seek to provide an overview of the historical and geographical emergence of city-regions and to reflect on some of the debates that have arisen in regard to the theoretical status of these phenomena. I briefly describe the growth and spread of city-regions in the world since the mid-1950s and I consider how contemporary capitalism and globalization have fostered the development of this distinctive urban form. The internal organization of city-regions is then examined, with special reference to four generic outcomes, namely (a) aestheticized land-use intensification, (b) gentrification, (c) social polarization and informality, and (d) postsuburban landscapes. Issues of governance and policy are scrutinized and basic dilemmas of political coordination in city-regions are described. The argument ends with an evaluative review of certain critiques of the city-region idea in the current academic literature.
Global city-regions and the new world system
2000
Abstract As we approach the twenty-first century, a world-wide mosaic of large city-regions seems to be overriding (though is not effacing entirely) an earlier core-periphery system of spatial organization. The economic dynamics of these city-regions are analyzed with particular emphasis on the ways in which they tend to generate increasing returns effects and competitive advantages for local producers.
City-Regions: Economic Motors and Political Actors on the Global Stage
Social Economy of the Metropolis, 2008
A world-wide mosaic of large city-regions seems to be over-riding (though is not effacing entirely) an earlier core-periphery system of spatial organization. The economic dynamics of these city-regions are analyzed with particular emphasis on the ways in which they tend to generate increasing-returns effects and competitive advantages for local producers. The managerial tasks that these city-regions face raise many new issues about local economic development policy and institution building in the interests of social order. These issues lead on to further questions about democracy and citizenship in the new global mosaic of city-regions as well as in the new world system as a whole.
Mobilising Regions: Territorial Strategies for Growth, 2013
ABSTRACT: What this paper is trying to highlight is how City-Regions are being actively constructed (Harrison, 2012), where they are being mobilised in support of, or in opposition to, particular territorial development models and strategies. Hence, this paper contributes to debates about the meaning and the understanding of the dynamics of actively constructed term of the “City-Region”, by proposing an Analytical Systemic Framework after reviewing the literature of the main key authors. The Analytical Systemic Framework called “The Future of the City-Regions” (FCR) consists of 5-Systems: URBS (Urban System), CYBER (Relational System), CIVITAS (Socio-Cultural System), POLIS (Socio-Political System) and DEMOS (Democratic System).
The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 30 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies.
Global and world cities: a view from off the map
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2002
There are a large number of cities around the world which do not register on intellectual maps that chart the rise and fall of global and world cities. They don't fall into either of these categories, and they probably never will-but many managers of these cities would like them to. Some of these cities find themselves interpreted instead through the lens of developmentalism, an approach which broadly understands these places to be lacking in the qualities of city-ness, and which is concerned to improve capacities of governance, service provision and productivity. Such an approach supports some of the more alarmist responses to mega-cities, which are more commonly identified in poorer countries. But for many smaller cities, even the category mega-city is irrelevant. My concerns in this article extend beyond the poor fit of these popular categories, though. I would like to suggest that these widely circulating approaches to contemporary urbanization-global and world cities, together with the persistent use of the category 'third-world city'-impose substantial limitations on imagining or planning the futures of cities around the world. Part of the adverse worldly impact of these urban theories is, I argue, a consequence of the geographical division of urban studies between urban theory, broadly focused on the West, and development studies, focused on places that were once called 'third-world cities'. This division might simply be an innocent acknowledgement of difference (Szelenyi, 1996). However, apart from the value-laden historical meaning of these categorical ascriptions, the persistent alignment of a 'theory'/'development' dualism with the 'West'/'third world' division in urban studies, suggests otherwise. 1 One of the consequences of these overlapping dualisms, is that understandings of city-ness have come to rest on the (usually unstated) experiences of a relatively small group of (mostly western) cities, and cities outside of the West are assessed in terms of this pre-given