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Recent research on measuring world city network formation has shown a mixture of hierarchical and regional tendencies. Using specially created data, the relative importance of these tendencies, and different regional sets of world cities, are evaluated using a discriminant analysis research model. It is found that regionality is at least as important as hierarchy amongst world cities. This contradicts the world city literature where the concept of a "world city hierarchy" dominates and regional patterning of world cities is relatively neglected. As well as suggesting a reorientation in world cities research, these findings have wider implications for globalisation in general. The latter is not, and I argue cannot, produce a homogeneous global space, which is what a single global hierarchy implies. Rather, it is always the case that globalisation processes simultaneously create more than one large scale of social activity. (Original abstract)

Recent research on measuring world city network formation has shown a mixture of hierarchical & regional tendencies. Using specially created data, the relative importance of these tendencies, & different regional sets of world cities, are evaluated using a discriminant analysis research model. It is found that regionality is at least as important as hierarchy amongst world cities. This contradicts the world city literature where the concept of a "world city hierarchy" dominates & regional patterning of world cities is relatively neglected. As well as suggesting a reorientation in world cities research, these findings have wider implications for globalization in general. The latter is not, & I argue cannot, produce a homogeneous global space, which is what a single global hierarchy implies. Rather, it is always the case that globalization processes simultaneously create more than one large scale of social activity. 3 Tables, 1 Appendix, 25 References. Adapted from the source document.

Recent research on measuring world city network formation has shown a mixture of hierarchical and regional tendencies. Using specially created data, the relative importance of these tendencies, and different regional sets of world cities, are evaluated using a discriminant analysis research model. It is found that regionality is at least as important as hierarchy amongst world cities. This contradicts the world city literature where the concept of a "world city hierarchy" dominates and regional patterning of world cities is relatively neglected. As well as suggesting a reorientation in world cities research, these findings have wider implications for globalisation in general. The latter is not, and I argue cannot, produce a homogeneous global space, which is what a single global hierarchy implies. Rather, it is always the case that globalisation processes simultaneously create more than one large scale of social activity.

In recent years, network behaviour has been analysed extensively as the emerging model for economic growth. By network behaviour, a metaphor for co-operative behaviour among individuals, corporate or territorial partners is intended. This is increasingly becoming the reference paradigm in an era of continuing innovation and fast technological change, in the presence of 'market failure' where dynamic and innovative behaviours are concerned and of the high costs of a growth strategy based solely on internal know-how. The theory of the city network paradigm claims that, through participation in the network, cities exploit scale economies in complementary relationships and synergies in co-operative activities. In this sense, network advantage is a real club good, achieved only by those economic actors who are partners in the economic and spatial network, and is distributed among partners despite the private marginal costs each partner bears to participate in the network. In this sense, the private marginal costs of network participation differ from private marginal benefits, and network advantages turn out to be network externalities. The aim of the present paper is to measure the impacts that city network behaviour has on city performance-i.e. to provide a quantitative measurement of network externalities stemming from network behaviour in territorial systems.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the construction of a set of data that can be used to measure intercity relations. Building on a specification of the world city network as an 'interlocking network' in which business service firms play the crucial role in network formation, information is gathered from global service firms about the size of their presence in a city and about any 'extra-territorial' functions of their offices. This information is converted into data to provide the 'service value' of a city for a firm's provision of its service in a 316 (cities) X 100 (firms) matrix. These data are used to measure the global network connectivity of the cities. In an initial analysis, the paper concludes with a simple correlation exercise that shows New York and London to be `exceptions' rather than 'exemplars' amongst contemporary world cities.

"With the advent of multinational corporations, the traditional urban service function has 'gone global.' In order to provide services to globalizing corporate clients, the offices of major financial and business service firms across the world have generated networks of work. It is the myriad of flows between office towers in different metropolitan centres that has produced a world city network. Taylor and Derudder's unique and illuminating book provides both an update and a substantial revision of the first edition that was published in 2004. It provides a comprehensive and systematic description and analysis of the world city network as the 'skeleton' upon which contemporary globalization has been built. Through an analysis of the intra-company flows of 175 leading global service firms across 526 cities in 2012, this book assesses cities in terms of their overall network connectivity, the regional configurations they form, and their changing position in the period 2000-12. Results are used to reflect on cities and city/state relations in the context of the global ecological and economic crisis. Written by two of the foremost authorities on the subject, this book provides a much-needed mapping of the connecting relationships between world cities, and will be an invaluable resource for students of urban studies, geography, sociology and planning"--

In a 2011 paper, I introduced the conceptual distinction between positions of centrality and power in world city networks and offered a new measure—now called alter-based centrality—designed to quantify the network positions of cities. Here, I respond to some conceptual and mathematical critiques of those ideas raised by Boyd et al. (2013) in their Comment on Neal (2011). On the conceptual side, I clarify the definitions of centrality and power, the relevance of exchange power in world city networks and the appropriate depth of network measures in this context. On the mathematical side, I clarify the relationship between alter-based centrality and other measures, and explore the limitations of two alternatives: eigenvector and beta centrality. This Reply concludes by noting that each measure has its own strengths and weaknesses, but that researchers should aim to use measures that are no more complex than necessary.

AbstractThis article offers a sympathetic critique of recent attempts to forge a dialogue between Global Commodity Chain (GCC) and World City Network (WCN) approaches to global economic change. While broadly supportive of the endeavour, we make three observations about this ongoing project. First, we question the utility of emphasizing the common roots of these approaches in World Systems Theory given that both have subsequently moved into new epistemological terrain and, additionally, that the language of core and periphery seems ever less pertinent to global economic realities. Second, we seek to highlight the potential dangers of essentializing the global system as one that is primarily shaped by certain kinds of connections – namely the intra‐firm relationships of advanced producer service firms – between certain kinds of cities – namely the leading tiers of global cities. Third, we point to the need to expand the interpretations of relationality within global networks to include a wider variety of actors, particularly beyond the corporate realm, and to explore the dynamic power relations between those actors. We also discuss the methodological challenges of expanding the purview of research in this way. This commentary has been stimulated by the articles in the special issue of Global Networks on 'World City Networks and Global Commodity Chains'.

In this article, we analyze the transnational urban geographies produced by international sport federations (ISFs) through their global, regional, and national headquarter locations. Data on the global urban presence of 35 major ISFs are examined through connectivity analysis and principal component analysis. The connectivity analysis reveals the relative dominance of cities in Europe and Pacific Asia, whereby Seoul, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Cairo, and Lausanne stand out. The principal component analysis reveals the main subnetworks produced through ISF location decisions, which includes inter alia a "winter sports subnetwork" centered on Ankara, Belgrade, Helsinki, and Stockholm; an "Olympic subnetwork" centered on Lausanne; and a decentered subnetwork with truly "global sports."