This article presents an analysis of the determinants of connectivity change in the world city network (WCN). Drawing on the theoretical research of Saskia Sassen and the subsequent empirical research of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) group, connectivity in the WCN is measured through the networked location strategies of globalised service firms. Based on a calculation of the total connectivity of 220 cities across the world for 2000 and 2004, a measurement of connectivity change is produced for this time-period. This measure of connectivity change is then used as the dependent variable in a linear regression model through which are tested a number of hypotheses concerning the determinants of connectivity change. The study analyses WCN change both in general and in sectoral terms, and also examines how the prior presence of service firms impacts connectivity change.
References
1.
Aalbers, M. ( 2009) Geographies of the financial crisis, Area, 41(1), pp. 34-42.
2.
Alderson, A.S. and Beckfield, J. ( 2004) Power and position in the world city system, American Journal of Sociology, 109, pp. 811-851.
3.
Alderson, A.S. and Beckfield, J. ( 2007) Globalization and the world city system: preliminary results from a longitudinal dataset, in: P. J. Taylor, B. Derudder, P. Saey and F. Witlox (Eds) Cities in Globalization: Practices, Polices and Theories , pp. 21-36. London: Routledge.
4.
Alderson, A.S., Beckfield, J. and Sprague-Jones, J. ( 2010) Intercity relations and globalisation: the evolution of the global urban hierarchy, 1981-2007, Urban Studies, 47(9), pp. 1899-1923.
5.
Baum, S. ( 1997) Sydney, Australia: a global city? Testing the social polarisation thesis, Urban Studies, 34(11), pp. 1881-1901.
6.
Beaverstock, J.V. ( 2007) World city networks ‘from below’: international mobility and inter city relations in the global investment banking industry , in: P. J. Taylor, B. Derudder, P. Saey and F. Witlox (Eds) Cities in Globalization: Practices, Policies and Theories, pp. 52-71. London : Routledge.
7.
Beaverstock, J.V., Smith, R.G. and Taylor, P.J. ( 1999) A roster of world cities, Cities, 16(6), pp. 445-458.
8.
Beaverstock, J.V., Doel, M.A., Hubbard, P.J. and Taylor, P.J. ( 2002) Attending to the world: competition/co-operation and co-efficiency in the world city network, Global Networks, 2(2), pp. 111-132.
9.
Beaverstock, J.V., Smith, R.G., Taylor, P.J. et al. (2000) Globalization and world cities: some measurement methodologies, Applied Geography, 20(1), pp. 43-63.
10.
Belsley, D.A., Kuh, E. and Welsch, R.E. ( 1980) Regression Diagnostics: Identifying Influential Data Sources of Collinearity. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
11.
Brenner, N. ( 1998) Global cities, glocal states: global city formation and state territorial restructuring in contemporary Europe, Review of International Political Economy, 5, pp. 1-37.
12.
Brenner, N. and Keil, R. (Eds) (2006) The Global Cities Reader. London: Routledge.
13.
Castells, M. ( 2000) The Rise of the Network Society, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell.
14.
Córdoba Ordóñez, J.A. and Gago García , C. (2010) Latin American cities and globalisation: change and permanency in the context of development expectations, Urban Studies, 47(9), pp. 2003-2021.
15.
Derudder, B. ( 2006) On conceptual confusion in empirical analyses of a transnational urban network, Urban Studies, 43(11), pp. 2027-2046.
16.
Derudder, B. ( 2008) Where we stand: a decade of empirical world cities research , Geography Compass, 2(2), pp. 559-574.
17.
Derudder, B. and Taylor, P.J. ( 2005) The cliquishness of world cities, Global Networks, 5(1), pp. 71-91.
18.
Derudder, B. and Witlox, F. ( 2005) An appraisal of the use of airline data in assessing the world city network: a research note on data, Urban Studies , 42(13), pp. 2371-2388.
19.
Derudder, B. and Witlox, F. ( 2008) Mapping global city networks through airline flows: context, relevance, and problems, Journal of Transport Geography, 16, pp. 305-312.
20.
Derudder, B., Taylor, P.J., Witlox, F. and Catalano, G. ( 2003) Hierarchical tendencies and regional patterns in the world city network: a global urban analysis of 234 cities, Regional Studies, 37(9), pp. 875-886.
21.
Derudder, B., Taylor, P.J., Ni, P. et al. (2010) Pathways of change: shifting connectivities in the world city network, 2000-08, Urban Studies, 47(9), pp. 1861-1877.
22.
Devriendt, L., Derudder, B. and Witlox, F. ( 2008) Cyberplace and cyberspace: two approaches to analyzing digital intercity linkages, Journal of Urban Technology, 15(2), pp. 5-32.
23.
Dunning, J.H. ( 1981) International Production and the Multinational Enterprise . London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
24.
Dunning, J.H. ( 2000) The eclectic paradigm as an envelope for economic and business theories of MNE activity, International Business Review, 9, pp. 163-190.
25.
Dunning, J.H. and Norman, G. ( 1983) The theory of multinational enterprise: an application of multinational office location, Environment and Planning A, 15, pp. 675-692.
26.
Dunning, J.H. and Norman, G. ( 1987) The location choice of international companies, Environment and Planning A, 19, pp. 613-632.
27.
Friedmann, J. ( 1986) The world city hypothesis, Development and Change, 17(1), pp. 69-83.
28.
Friedmann, J. ( 1995) Where we stand: a decade of world city research, in: P. L. Knox and P. J. Taylor (Eds) World Cities in a World System, pp. 21-47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
29.
Friedmann, J. and Wolff, G. ( 1982) World city formation: an agenda for research and action , International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 6(3), pp. 309-344.
30.
Godfrey, B.J. and Zhou, Y. ( 1999) Ranking world cities: multinational corporations and the global urban hierarchy, Urban Geography, 20, pp. 268-281.
31.
Hamnett, C. ( 1994) Social polarisation in global cities: theory and evidence , Urban Studies, 31(3), pp. 401-424.
32.
Hamnett, C. ( 1996) Why Sassen is wrong: a response to Burgers, Urban Studies, 33(1), pp. 107-110.
33.
Hamnett, C. ( 2003) Unequal City: London in the Global Arena. London: Routledge.
34.
Hill, R.C. and Kim, J.W. ( 2000) Global cities and developmental states: New York, Tokyo and Seoul, Urban Studies, 37(12), pp. 2167-2195.
35.
Hoyler, M. and Jöns, H. ( 2008) Global knowledge nodes and networks, in: C. Johnson, R. Hu and S. Abedin (Eds) Connecting Cities: Networks , pp. 124-151. Sydney: Metropolis Congress.
36.
Jacobs, W., Ducruet, C. and Langen, P. W. de ( 2009) Integrating world cities into production networks: the case of port cities. Working paper available from authors.
37.
Knox, P. L. and Taylor, P. J. (Eds) (1995) World Cities in a World System. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
38.
Mahutga, M.C., Ma, X., Smith, D.A. and Timberlake, M. ( 2010) Economic globalisation and the structure of the world city system: the case of airline passenger data, Urban Studies , 47(9), pp. 1925-1947.
39.
Malecki, E. ( 2002) The economic geography of the Internet’s infrastructure , Economic Geography, 78, pp. 399-424.
40.
Massey, D. ( 2007) World City. Cambridge: Polity Press.
41.
Matthiessen, C., Winkel Schwarz, A. and Find, S. ( 2010) World cities of scientific knowledge: systems, networks and potential dynamics. An analysis based on bibliometric indicators, Urban Studies, 47(9), pp. 1879-1897.
42.
Morshidi, S. ( 2000) Globalising Kuala Lumpur and the strategic role of the producer services sector, Urban Studies, 37(12), pp. 2217-2240.
43.
Moulaert, F. and Djellal, F. ( 1995) Information technology consultancy firms: economies of agglomeration from a wide-area perspective, Urban Studies , 32, pp. 105-122.
44.
Pirie, G. ( 2010) Trajectories of north-south city inter-relations: Johannesburg and Cape Town, 1994-2007, Urban Studies, 47(9), pp. 1985-2002.
45.
Polèse, M. and Denis-Jacob, J. ( 2010) Changes at the top: a cross-country examination over the 20th century of the rise (and fall) in rank of the top cities in national urban hierarchies, Urban Studies, 47(9), pp. 1843-1860.
46.
Robinson, J. ( 2002) Global and world cities: a view from off the map, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 26(3), pp. 531-554.
47.
Rozenblat, C. and Pumain, D. (2007) Firm linkages, innovation and the evolution of urban systems, in: P. J. Taylor, B. Derudder , P. Saey and F. Witlox (Eds) Cities in Globalization: Practices, Policies, Theories, pp. 130-156. London: Routledge.
48.
Saey, P. (2007) How cities scientifically (do not) exist: methodological appraisal of research on globalizing processes of intercity networking, in: P. J. Taylor, B. Derudder, P. Saey and F. Witlox (Eds) Cities in Globalization: Practices, Policies and Theories, pp. 298-313. London: Routledge .
49.
Sassen, S. (1991) The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press.
50.
Sassen, S. (1994) Cities in a World Economy. London: Pine Forge Press.
51.
Sassen, S. ( 2001) The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo, 2nd edn. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
52.
Sassen, S. (Ed.) (2002) Global Networks, Linked Cities. New York: Routledge.
53.
Short, J., Kim, Y., Kuss, M. and Wells, H. ( 1996) The dirty little secret of world city research, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 20, pp. 697-717.
54.
Smith, D.A. and Timberlake, M. ( 2001) World city networks and hierarchies, 1977-1997: an empirical analysis of global air travel links, American Behavioral Scientist , 44(10), pp. 1656-1678.
55.
Taylor, P.J. ( 1997) Hierarchical tendencies amongst world cities: a global research proposal, Cities, 14(6), pp. 323-332.
56.
Taylor, P.J. ( 2000) World cities and territorial states under conditions of contemporary globalization, Political Geography, 19, pp. 5-32.
57.
Taylor, P.J. ( 2001) Specification of the world city network, Geographical Analysis, 33 (2), pp. 181-194.
58.
Taylor, P.J. ( 2004) World City Network: A Global Urban Analysis. London: Routledge.
59.
Taylor, P.J. and Aranya, R. ( 2008) A global ‘urban roller coaster’? Connectivity changes in the world city network, 2000-04, Regional Studies , 42(1), pp. 1-16.
60.
Taylor, P.J., Catalano, G. and Walker, D.R.F. ( 2002a) Measurement of the world city network, Urban Studies, 39(13), pp. 2367-2376.
61.
Taylor, P.J., Catalano, G. and Walker, D.R.F. ( 2002b) Exploratory analysis of the world city network, Urban Studies, 39(13), pp. 2377-2394.
62.
Taylor, P.J., Derudder, B. and Witlox, F. ( 2007) Comparing airline passenger destinations with global service connectivities: a worldwide empirical study of 214 cities, Urban Geography, 28(3), pp. 232-248.
63.
Taylor, P.J., Ni, P., Derudder, B. et al. (2009) The way we were: command-and-control centres in the global space-economy on the eve of the 2008 geo-economic transition , Environment and Planning A, 41(1), pp. 7-12.
64.
Tranos, E. and Gillespie, A.(2009) The spatial distribution of Internet backbone networks in Europe: a metropolitan knowledge economy perspective, European Urban and Regional Studies, 16(4), pp. 423-437.
65.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs ( 2006) Demographic Yearbook, Publication No. 55, United Nations.
66.
Vinciguerra, S., Frenken, K. and Valente, M. ( 2010) The geography of Internet infrastructure: an evolutionary simulation approach based on preferential attachment, Urban Studies, 47(9), pp. 1969-1984.
67.
Wang, C.-H. ( 2003) Taipei as a global city: a theoretical and empirical examination , Urban Studies, 40(2), pp. 309-334.
