The distribution of national urban hierarchies of connectivity within global city networks

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how the national urban hierarchies can be understood through the lens of connectivity within globally scaled economic networks. We first examine the global city network structure using a k‐core decomposition method. Values of k‐coreness are then used to understand the distribution of global connectivity within national urban systems. This is observed through a measure of statistical dispersion applied to a novel global dataset of 68,602 weighted headquarter‐subsidiary relations of 31,371 firms linking 4181 cities collected in 2019. Our results confirm the existence of a hierarchical core–periphery structure at a global scale, yet reveal varying degrees of hierarchy at a national scale. At a national scale, single‐core, double‐core or multi‐core network structures characterize the way in which national and global city networks intersect, indicating that there is a distinction between global cities as the core and urban‐systems‐as‐networks that connect nations to the global economy.

<b>Study on City Networks of the Three Large Urban Agglomerations in China Based on the Site Distribution of Large Enterprises</b>

“…This representation of the core-periphery structure is not binary but continuous. It acknowledges that there can be multiple partitions of node classes, and the categorization of core and periphery can be subjective and context dependent (Loginova et al, 2022). We considered the highest core number in the k-core subnetwork can illustrate the closeness of the connections between the core cities.…”

Spatial Spillover and Convergent Mechanism of Urban–Rural Financial Imbalances: Evidence from China

“…In fact, within the linked network of regional economies, urban-rural development also exhibits spatial heterogeneity and dependence. In spatial agglomeration, urban systems gradually self-organize into a highly regular hierarchy and form a connected network structure [26][27][28]. Symbiotic relationships can emerge between urban hierarchies based on regional market potential, including the rural fringe [26,29].…”

How business-related governance strategies impact paths towards the formation of global cities? An institutional embeddedness perspective

“…Besides these economic factors, other geo-socio-political-cultural factors impacting the formation of global cities have also been studied. For example, scholars investigated the pivotal role of geopolitics and local politics as a response of political struggles among states in the global city formation (Purcell, 2002;Wang, 2004); the roles of national and local governments in the formation of global cities (Zhang, 2014); the political, economic, socio-culture functions for formation of global cities (Chubarov and Brooker, 2013); the urban hierarchies of connectivity forming cities' globally scaled networks (Loginova et al, 2021), and how information technology and finance were becoming the leading forces for the new global cities (Ni and Shen, 2021).…”