Overview

Globalization describes a situation in which important social relations are becoming worldwide, transcending national boundaries. But how are these transnational flows and connections organized if not through countries? The most common answer to this question considers cities to be the organizational 'hubs' of globalization. World City Network interprets cities as global service centres. With the advent of multinational corporations, the traditional urban service function has 'gone global'. In order to provide services to globalizing corporate clients, the offices of major financial and business service firms across the world have formed a network. It is the myriad of flows between office towers in different metropolitan centres that has produced the world city network. Through an analysis of the intra-company flows of 100 leading global service firms across 315 cities, this book assesses cities in terms of their overall network connectivity, their connectivity by service sector, and their connectivity by world region. Peter Taylor's book provides the first comprehensive and systematic description and analysis of the world city network as the 'skeleton' upon which contemporary globalization has been built. The analyses challenge the traditional view of the world as a 'mosaic map' of political boundaries.

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9780415302494

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Reviews

'A truly masterful account of the complex spatialities of global urbanization ... if you only have the money to buy two books on world cities, buy this one. Twice.' - Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design

'Peter Taylor's masterful synthesis is arguably the most important contribution to the study of global urbanization since the publication of Saskia Sassen's The Global City over a decade ago. The volume contains a trove of original empirical data that provides the most detailed, nuanced mapping of the emergent global urban system that has yet been developed. This book is a major intervention that will open up an entirely new terrain of theoretical debate and empirical inquiry for urbanists as well as for other scholars of contemporary globalization. <br>-Neil Brenner, New York University <br> A plausible view of contemporary globalization is that the world is caught between pressures for an increasingly city-based political economy and for the resurgence of state-based direction. Peter Taylor lays out a brilliant, historically-informed account of how this came to pass. Not the least of the book's merits is its persuasive use of sophisticated empirical information to counter the often sloppy empiricism of so much contemporary discussion of world cities and what they might portend. <br>-John Agnew, University of California <br> An excellent book that maps the countours of inter-city relations at various scales with unprecedented clarity, sophistication, and historical focus. World City Network will help to sharpen often vague and lazy current debates about globalization and cities. <br>-Steve Graham, University of Newcastle <br> Much has been claimed about the importance of world cities but only now--with the arrival of Peter Taylor's book--do we have the evidence to make an informed assessment. <br>-John Allen, The Open University <br>

Author Information

Peter Taylor is Professor of Geography at the University of Loughborough, UK and Research Professor at the Metropolitan Institute, Virginia Tech, USA.

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