Frank Witlox - Böcker

Despite traditionally being a strong research topic in urban studies, inter-city relations had become grossly neglected until recently, when it was placed back on the research agenda with the advent of studies of world/global cities. More recently the ‘external relations’ of cities have taken their place alongside ‘internal relations’ within cities to constitute the full nature of cities. This collection of essays on how and why cities are connecting to each other in a globalizing world provides evidence for a new city-centered geography that is emerging in the twenty-first century. Cities in Globalization covers four key themes beginning with the different ways of measuring a ‘world city network’, ranging from analyses of corporate structures to airline passenger flows. Second is the recent European advances in studying ‘urban systems’ which are compared to the Anglo-American city networks approach. These chapters add conceptual vigour to traditional themes and provide findings on European cities in globalization. Thirdly the political implications of these new geographies of flows are considered in a variety of contexts: the localism of city planning, specialist ‘political world cities’, and the ‘war on terror’. Finally, there are a series of chapters that critically review the state of our knowledge on contemporary relations between cities in globalization. Cities in Globalization provides an up-to-date assembly of leading American and European researchers reporting their ideas on the critical issue of how cities are faring in contemporary globalization and is highly illustrated throughout with over forty figures and tables.

Despite traditionally being a strong research topic in urban studies, inter-city relations had become grossly neglected until recently, when it was placed back on the research agenda with the advent of studies of world/global cities. More recently the ‘external relations’ of cities have taken their place alongside ‘internal relations’ within cities to constitute the full nature of cities. This collection of essays on how and why cities are connecting to each other in a globalizing world provides evidence for a new city-centered geography that is emerging in the twenty-first century. Cities in Globalization covers four key themes beginning with the different ways of measuring a ‘world city network’, ranging from analyses of corporate structures to airline passenger flows. Second is the recent European advances in studying ‘urban systems’ which are compared to the Anglo-American city networks approach. These chapters add conceptual vigour to traditional themes and provide findings on European cities in globalization. Thirdly the political implications of these new geographies of flows are considered in a variety of contexts: the localism of city planning, specialist ‘political world cities’, and the ‘war on terror’. Finally, there are a series of chapters that critically review the state of our knowledge on contemporary relations between cities in globalization. Cities in Globalization provides an up-to-date assembly of leading American and European researchers reporting their ideas on the critical issue of how cities are faring in contemporary globalization and is highly illustrated throughout with over forty figures and tables.

A striking consequence of contemporary globalization has been an increase in the importance and prestige of cities. Whereas only a generation or so ago cities were commonly viewed as ‘problems’, the sites of society’s ills, today they are more readily seen as ‘solutions’, places where twenty-first century dilemmas can most successfully be resolved. Hence, argue the editors of this new four-volume collection from Routledge, while globalization is generally viewed as eroding the influence of states, cities have come to the fore as the new spatial frame of the future. The old modern international organization of states as a worldwide mosaic of borders is being challenged by transnational spaces of flows organized through city nodes in global networks.As serious work on and around the subject flourishes as never before, Global Cities answers the need for an authoritative reference work to map and make sense of a vast body of literature and a continuing explosion in research output. Edited by a team of leading scholars, the collection brings together in four volumes the very best foundational and cutting-edge contributions.The set is fully indexed and each component volume has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the gathered material in its historical and intellectual context. Global Cities is an essential resource and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research tool.

Business travel has become indispensable to the global economy, not only due to its necessity in the maintaining of corporate networks, but also because of the associated economies that cater to the daily requirements of the business traveller. Underlying these developments are concerns over the environmental impact of increasing air travel, which are likely to generate new challenges for the future of business travel. From a team of international experts comes this analysis of the role, nature and effects of modern business travel. Issues addressed include the relationships between airlines and business travellers, the role of mobility in business, and the opportunities and challenges created by mobile workforces. The study combines theoretical advances with comprehensive analysis, and will provoke debate across the social sciences on the nature, organization and space of work in the twenty-first century.

The overarching research topic addressed in this book is the complex and multifaceted interaction between infrastructural accessibility/connectivity of city-regions on the one hand and knowledge generation in these city-regions on the other hand. To this end, the book brings together chapters analysing how infrastructural accessibility is related to changing patterns of business location of knowledge-intensive industries in city-regions. The chapters in this book specifically dwell on recent manifestations of and developments in the accessibility/knowledge-nexus, with a particular metageographical focus on how this materializes in major city-regions. In the different chapters, this shifting relation is broached from different perspectives (seaports, airports, brainports), at different scales (ranging from global-scale analyses to case studies), and by adopting a variety of methodologies (straddling the wide variety of methodological approaches currently adopted in human geography research). Researchers contributing to this edited volume come from different scholarly backgrounds (sociology, human geography, regional planning), which allows for a varied treatise of this research topic.

Business travel has become indispensable to the global economy, not only due to its necessity in the maintaining of corporate networks, but also because of the associated economies that cater to the daily requirements of the business traveller. Underlying these developments are concerns over the environmental impact of increasing air travel, which are likely to generate new challenges for the future of business travel. From a team of international experts comes this analysis of the role, nature and effects of modern business travel. Issues addressed include the relationships between airlines and business travellers, the role of mobility in business, and the opportunities and challenges created by mobile workforces. The study combines theoretical advances with comprehensive analysis, and will provoke debate across the social sciences on the nature, organization and space of work in the twenty-first century.

Global Urban Analysis provides a unique insight into the contemporary world economy through a focus on cities. It is based upon a large-scale customised data collection on how leading businesses use cities across the world: as headquarter locations, for finance, for professional and creative services, for media. These data - involving up to 2000 firms and over 500 cities - provide evidence for both how the leading cities, sometimes called global cities, are coming to dominate the world economy, and how hundreds of other cities are faring in this brave new urban world. Thus can the likes of London, New York and Hong Kong be tracked as well as Manchester, Cleveland and Guangzhou, and even Plymouth, Chattanooga and Xi'an. Cities are assessed and ranked in terms of their importance for various functions such as for financial services, legal services and advertising, plus novel findings are reported for the geographical orientations of their connections. This is truly a comprehensive survey of cities in globalization covering global, world-regional, and national scales of analysis: - 4 key chapters outline the global structure of the world economy featuring the leading cities; - 9 regional chapters covering the whole world also feature the level of services provided by 'medium' cities; - 22 chapters on selected countries and sub-regions indicate global-ness and local-ness and feature an even wider range of cities. Written in an easy to understand style, this book is a must read for anybody interested in their own city in the world and how it relates to other cities.

The overarching research topic addressed in this book is the complex and multifaceted interaction between infrastructural accessibility/connectivity of city-regions on the one hand and knowledge generation in these city-regions on the other hand. To this end, the book brings together chapters analysing how infrastructural accessibility is related to changing patterns of business location of knowledge-intensive industries in city-regions. The chapters in this book specifically dwell on recent manifestations of and developments in the accessibility/knowledge-nexus, with a particular metageographical focus on how this materializes in major city-regions. In the different chapters, this shifting relation is broached from different perspectives (seaports, airports, brainports), at different scales (ranging from global-scale analyses to case studies), and by adopting a variety of methodologies (straddling the wide variety of methodological approaches currently adopted in human geography research). Researchers contributing to this edited volume come from different scholarly backgrounds (sociology, human geography, regional planning), which allows for a varied treatise of this research topic.

Transnational spatial relations offer a key point from which to study the geographies of contemporary globalization. This book assesses the possible cross-fertilization between two of the most notable analytical frameworks - the world city network framework and the global commodity chain framework. Transnational spatial relations have become a key analytical lens through which to study the geographies of contemporary globalizationBrings together contributions of key researchers from different backgrounds and different parts of the worldOffers a set of original approaches to the study of the networked geography of globalization

This Handbook offers an unrivaled overview of current research into how globalization is affecting the external relations and internal structures of major cities in the world. By treating cities at a global scale, it focuses on the 'stretching' of urban functions beyond specific place locations, without losing sight of the multiple divisions in contemporary world cities. The book firmly bases city networks in their historical context, critically discusses contemporary concepts and key empirical measures, and analyzes major issues relating to world city infrastructures, economies, governance and divisions. The variety of urban outcomes in contemporary globalization is explored through detailed case studies. Edited by leading scholars of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network and written by over 60 experts in the field, the Handbook is a unique resource for students, researchers and academics in urban and globalization studies as well as for city professionals in planning and policy.Contributors: M. Acuto, A.S. Alderson, H. Ali, D. Bassens, H. Bathelt, J.V. Beaverstock, J. Beckfield, A. Boulton, S.D. Brunn, L.C.S. Budd, T. Bunnell, K. Datta, B. Derudder, A. De Vos, L. Devriendt, E. Engelen, Y. Evans, J. Faulconbridge, R. Grant, T.H. Grubesic, C. Grundy-Warr, S. Hall, C. Hamnett, J. Harrison, J. Herbert, M. Hoyler, P. Hubbard, R. Keil, A.D. King, R. Kloosterman, P. Knox, E. Korcelli-Olejniczak, K.P.Y. Lai, B. Lambregts, R.E. Lang, L. Lees, C. Lizieri, E.J. Malecki, T.C. Matisziw, J. May, C. McIlwaine, D. Murakami Wood, C. Nagel, P. Newman, C. Nicholas, J. Nijman, S. Oosterlynck, K. Pain, C. Parnreiter, A.C. Pratt, J. Rennie Short, J.D. Sidaway, D. Smith, R.G. Smith, M. Sparke, P.J. Taylor, A. Thornley, B. van der Knaap, H. van der Wusten, R. Wall, A. Watson, J. Wills, F. Witlox

This Handbook offers an unrivaled overview of current research into how globalization is affecting the external relations and internal structures of major cities in the world. By treating cities at a global scale, it focuses on the 'stretching' of urban functions beyond specific place locations, without losing sight of the multiple divisions in contemporary world cities. The book firmly bases city networks in their historical context, critically discusses contemporary concepts and key empirical measures, and analyzes major issues relating to world city infrastructures, economies, governance and divisions. The variety of urban outcomes in contemporary globalization is explored through detailed case studies. Edited by leading scholars of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network and written by over 60 experts in the field, the Handbook is a unique resource for students, researchers and academics in urban and globalization studies as well as for city professionals in planning and policy.Contributors: M. Acuto, A.S. Alderson, H. Ali, D. Bassens, H. Bathelt, J.V. Beaverstock, J. Beckfield, A. Boulton, S.D. Brunn, L.C.S. Budd, T. Bunnell, K. Datta, B. Derudder, A. De Vos, L. Devriendt, E. Engelen, Y. Evans, J. Faulconbridge, R. Grant, T.H. Grubesic, C. Grundy-Warr, S. Hall, C. Hamnett, J. Harrison, J. Herbert, M. Hoyler, P. Hubbard, R. Keil, A.D. King, R. Kloosterman, P. Knox, E. Korcelli-Olejniczak, K.P.Y. Lai, B. Lambregts, R.E. Lang, L. Lees, C. Lizieri, E.J. Malecki, T.C. Matisziw, J. May, C. McIlwaine, D. Murakami Wood, C. Nagel, P. Newman, C. Nicholas, J. Nijman, S. Oosterlynck, K. Pain, C. Parnreiter, A.C. Pratt, J. Rennie Short, J.D. Sidaway, D. Smith, R.G. Smith, M. Sparke, P.J. Taylor, A. Thornley, B. van der Knaap, H. van der Wusten, R. Wall, A. Watson, J. Wills, F. Witlox