Territorial Competition and Globalisation: Scylla and Charybdis of European Cities

Policy-makers in Europe have been concerned with developing and sustaining the competitiveness of their cities. This concern comes from the view that the determing parameter of urban regions is globalisation. By engaging in a process of territorial competition, the economic and social welfare of cities' constituent territories can be maintained. What this paper argues is that there is a danger that territorial competition is as much an abstraction as globalisation and its application to policy-making will bring about distortions in economic development. By examining the specification of globalisation and territorial competition and the relevant literature, a debate may be initiated in which the consequences for the economic environment of European cities are addressed. The discussion is given some context by drawing on the cursory examples, one global and one local, of London and Lille.