http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6195-8544
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Abstract
In this article we attempt to understand the new world geography through its cities by treating corporate globalization from the perspective of cities insofar as they are central to the global networks that make large-scale economic processes possible. To this end, we draw on a conceptual and empirical extension of world city network research to describe the major globalization phases that have been shaping the twenty-first century. After situating our world city network research in the much broader field of research on globalizing cities, we retell the narrative of the extensive, intensive, and Chinese globalization phases as reflected in the office networks of 175 of the world’s largest producer services firms across 707 cities. A purposeful combination of connectivity and multivariate analysis is used to reveal cumulative, interacting, overlapping, and unfolding geographies of global economic patterns. We argue that these three key globalizations are shaping the global context of economic processes in the twenty-first century and describe the urban geography of each of these globalizations to understand their broader meanings within today’s global economy.
城市作为全球经济网络的中心, 使大规模经济过程成为了可能。本文希望通过分析企业全球化, 从现今城市的角度理解全新世界格局。为此, 我们利用世界城市网络研究的概念和经验扩展, 来说明决定二十一世纪走向的主要全球化阶段。我们在更广泛的全球化城市研究领域中开展世界城市网络研究, 然后重述了中国全球化过程中广泛而密集的各个阶段, 遍布 707 座城市的 175 家全球最大生产性服务公司的办公网络均有参与其中。我们特别将连通性和多元分析相结合, 揭示全球经济模式累积、交互、重叠和演进的地理格局。我们认为这三种关键的全球化过程正在决定二十一世纪全球经济进程的走向, 通过阐述各全球化进程的城市地理格局, 了解其在当今全球经济中更广泛的意义。
Lo que intentamos en este artículo es entender la nueva geografía del mundo a través de sus ciudades al tratar la globalización empresarial desde la perspectiva de las urbes en tanto ellas son centrales a las redes globales que hacen posible los procesos económicos a gran escala. Para eso, nos apoyamos en una extensión conceptual y empírica de la investigación sobre la red urbana mundial para describir las principales faces de globalización que han estado dándole forma al siglo XXI. Luego de situar nuestra investigación de la red mundial de ciudades en el campo mucho más amplio de la investigación sobre las ciudades globalizantes, volvemos a relatar la narrativa de fases de globalización extensas, intensas y chinas, según se reflejan en las redes de oficinas de 175 de las más grandes firmas productoras de servicios, a través de 707 ciudades. Se usa una decidida combinación de conectividad y análisis multivariado para revelar las geografías acumulativas, interactivas, superpuestas y desdobladas de los patrones económicos globales. Sostenemos que estas tres globalizaciones clave están configurando el contexto global de los procesos económicos del siglo XXI, y describimos la geografía urbana correspondiente a cada una de estas globalizaciones para entender sus más amplios significados dentro de la economía global de nuestros días.
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Notes
Notes
1 In our study, we have chosen to focus on the top three principal components from an analysis of fourteen rotated components rather than simply opting for a rotation of just three components. This is because in our exploratory work we have found fourteen distinctive common patterns (e.g., the regional patterns alluded elsewhere to in the article): If we rotate just three components, the variation from the other eleven principal components will become available to be incorporated into these three principal components. By embracing variation that we understand describes separate patterns, a simple three principal component solution will render less distinct results. Thus, our three from fourteen approach avoids this catch-all element to produce quite tight patterns of major common variance.
2 The Monroe Doctrine was initially a U.S. policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas. Stated in 1823 in the context of Latin American decolonization, it specified that further or renewed efforts by European nations to take control of independent states in the Americas would be viewed as the manifestation of an “unfriendly disposition toward the United States.” From that point onward, the term gradually gained a broader meaning of Latin America being “America’s backyard” and therefore one of its major geographical spheres of influence in geopolitical and geo-economic terms.
3 Functional divisions between cities in multinodal urban regions, therefore, are a challenge to analyses for configuring the WCN. The classic case is in the Rhine–Ruhr region where APS firms in Cologne and Dusseldorf largely provide services at different scales, national and global, respectively (Taylor, Evans, and Pain Citation2008). When the research purpose is to seek out broader (global) configurations, such cities are treated separately in network analyses.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ben Derudder
BEN DERUDDER is a Professor of Urban Geography in the Department of Geography, Ghent University, B9000 Ghent, Belgium. E-mail: ben.derudder@ugent.be. He is also an Associate Director of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network. Most of his research adopts an explicitly geographical approach to studying a range of urban and regional questions, with a particular focus on city networks at the global scale and polycentric urban regions.
Peter J. Taylor
PETER J. TAYLOR is an Emeritus Professor of Human Geography at Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 8ST, UK, and an Emeritus Professor of Geography at Loughborough University. E-mail: crogfam@gmail.com. He is also the Director of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network and a Fellow of the British Academy. Most of his recent research deals with how cities relate to each other economically, with a particular focus on exploring the global space economy through a bilayered model combining cities with states and exploring the idea of green networks of cities.