The challenge of world city network pattern changes on the world city network analysis

Searching for Cyberspace: The Position of Major Cities in the Information Age

“…Unfortunately, such data are exceedingly scarce." (Alderson and Beckfield 2004:820) While virtually all studies on the importance of cities in the global economy begin by lamenting the lack of suitable comparative and relational data (e.g., Short et al, 1996;Beaverstock et al 2000a, b;Smith and Timberlake, 2001;Taylor, 1997Taylor, , 2004Hall, 2001;Alderson and Beckfield, 2004;Zook and Brunn, 2006;Derudder et al, 2007), we argue that this lamentation is no longer a critical issue in studies looking at the positions of cities in terms of information. Indeed, a core characteristic of the Information Age is precisely the unprecedented volumes of and access to information-the Web being the most prominent and obvious example.…”

“…Leading examples of these new, empirical approaches include the outcomes from the Globalization and World Cities group (GaWC) on corporate organization in advanced producer service firms (e.g., Taylor, 2001;2004), along with infrastructure-based studies on "global reach" such as Internet infrastructure (e.g., Malecki, 2002;Rutherford et al, 2004) and airline networks (e.g., Smith and Timberlake, 2001;Zook and Brunn, 2006). These are clearly important studies that address in some detail various dimensions of the physical connections between cities in the global urban system.…”

Desarrollo local: ¿una respuesta a los desafíos de la recuperación?

“…En Arteixo, municipio del área metropolitana de A Coruña (con 386 mil habitantes y una tasa de paro provincial del 15,6% para un total de 1.139 mil habitantes), surgió en 1975 Zara, una empresa capaz de organizar una red global de empresas productoras y comercializadoras de prendas de vestir y moda, "fast fashion" (ERIKSSON y JONSSON, 2011). En Getafe, municipio (con 171 mil habitantes) del área metropolitana de Madrid (con una tasa de paro de la comunidad autónoma del 15,4% para una población de seis millones cuatro cientos mil habitantes), una ciudad global en formación (TAYLOR, 2004), se ha creado una red de empresas especializadas en la producción de partes de aviones comercializados por EADS-CASA y Airbus-España. En Mondragón (con 22.064 habitantes), una ciudad articulada al sistema de ciudades de Guipúzcoa (con 705 mil habitantes y un 9% de paro), la Unión Cooperativa se internacionaliza a principios de los años noventa del siglo pasado (ELIO, 2004).…”

Cyberplace and Cyberspace: Two Approaches to Analyzing Digital Intercity Linkages

“…Researchers have relied on a wide variety of data, but some information sources have come to dominate the empirical research, especially information on corporate organization (e.g., data on ownership links between firms across space) and information on infrastructure networks (e.g., data on the volume of air passenger flows across space). The success of both approaches can, of course, be traced to their commonsensical appeal: the corporate-organization approach acknowledges that well-connected cities derive their status in large part from the presence of key offices of important firms, while the infrastructure Taylor 2004 Taylor 2004 Knox Derudder approach recognizes that well-connected cities are typified by the presence of vast enabling infrastructures. Put simply: the most important cities harbor the most important airports, while the extensive fiber backbone networks that support the Internet have equally been deployed within and between major cities, hence creating a vast planetary infrastructure network upon which the global economy has come to depend almost as much as it depends on physical transport networks.…”