Global Urban Analysis: A Survey of Cities in Globalization

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.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. Introduction: the GUCP/GaWC Project Part I: GLOBAL-SCALE ANALYSES 2. Command and Control Centres in the World Economy 3. Advanced Producer Service Centres in the World Economy 4. Media Centres in the World Economy 5. The Global City Process Score Part II: WORLD-REGIONAL CONNECTIVITY ANALYSES Introduction 6. Australasian Cities in Globalization 7. Pacific Asian Cities in Globalization 8. Eurasian Cities in Globalization 9. South Asian Cities in Globalization 10. Middle East/North African Cities in Globalization 11. European Cities in Globalization 12. Sub-Saharan Cities in Globalization 13. Northern American Cities in Globalization 14. Latin American Cities in Globalization Global Synthesis: Regional Geography of Global Servicing Part III: KEY COUNTRY & SUB-REGIONAL CONNECTIVITY PROFILES Introduction 15. Australian Cities 16. Chinese Cities 17. Japanese Cities 18. Indian Cities 19. German Cities 20. French Cities 21. Swiss Cities 22. Italian Cities 23. UK Cities 24. Canadian Cities 25. USA Cities 26. Mexican Cities 27. Brazilian Cities 28. South East Asian Cities 29. Arabian Gulf Cities 30. European Post-Soviet Cities 31. Eastern European Cities 32. Nordic Cities 33. Benelux Cities 34. Iberian Cities 35. Southern African Cities 36. Central American Cities Global Synthesis: National and Sub-Regional Contrasts POSTSCRIPT Trends and Change APPENDICES A: Lists of Firms and Cities (i) Firms listed in Forbes 2000 (2006) (ii) All 200 firms in the network analyses (iii) All 525 cities in the network analyses B: Technical Appendix (i) Data collection: Manual for data collectors (ii) Data transformation: Network connectivity and hinterworld calculation

About the Author :
Peter J. Taylor is Professor of Geography and Environmental Management at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, and Director of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network. Pengfei Ni is Professor of Economics at the Institute of Finance and Trade Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing, China, and Secretary General of the Global Urban Competitiveness Project (GUCP). Ben Derudder is Lecturer in Human Geography at Ghent University, Belgium, and Associate Director of GaWC. Michael Hoyler is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Loughborough University, UK, and Associate Director of GaWC. Jin Huang is Lecturer at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China, and Research Fellow at GUCP. Frank Witlox is Professor of Economic Geography at Ghent University, Belgium, and Associate Director of GaWC.

Review :
'An indispensable resource for scholars and practitioners around the world.' - Roger Keil, Professor and Director, The City Institute at York University 'This impressive compilation marks a milestone in the international cooperation of researchers on cities in globalization. It will be an indispensable resource for scholars and practitioners around the world.' - Roger Keil, Professor and Director, The City Institute at York University 'The culmination of two decades of work developing a new methodology and building the largest available data set on cities in a global world. This is an extraordinary advance for the now urgent need to measure the diverse and variable connections among cities across borders and time-zones.'- Saskia Sassen, author of The Global City and Professor, Columbia University 'Intensified business connections among cities form one of the key expressions of contemporary globalization; their nature and geography are constantly changing. Global Urban Analysis provides the most comprehensive investigation of such connections that has ever been undertaken. Based on a sophisticated theorization of the global urban system, well-crafted methodological tools and an awesome trove of empirical data, this book is a truly path-breaking analysis of globalized urbanization. This is an essential resource for all who are concerned to understand and to influence the changing shape of our hyperurbanized world.'- Neil Brenner, Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies, New York University 'For the first time we can evaluate cities in our own country while seeing how they relate to the rest of the global economy. This is a breathtaking achievement.' - Fan Gang, Economist and Vice Chairman of the China Reform Foundation (NERI-China), Beijing, China 'I can recommend Global Urban Analysis as a benchmark volume for planners and others who study the changing world and its major cities.' - Edward J. Malecki, Journal of Planning and Education and Research