IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v43y2006i11p2027-2046.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On Conceptual Confusion in Empirical Analyses of a Transnational Urban Network

Author

Listed:
  • Ben Derudder

    (Department, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281/S8, Gent, B9000 Belgium, ben.derudder@ugent.be)

Abstract

A number of researchers have recently tried to map the contours of a transnational urban network. Although these empirical studies have great merits in making a closer connection to theoretical ideas on a genuine urban network, they sometimes fail to recognise that the whole idea of cities as 'nodes' in a transnational urban network is a heuristic at best. To assess this underdeveloped analytical connection, a taxonomy of dominant empirical and theoretical approaches is constructed. Contrasting both taxonomies reveals a mismatch between theory and measurement. This mismatch is addressed in more detail through four separate but entwined examples of conceptual conflation: a lack of rigour in the employed terminologies; inappropriate discussions of results against the background of other concepts; the inadequate delineation of the urban area; and, the limited analytical value of infrastructure-based analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Ben Derudder, 2006. "On Conceptual Confusion in Empirical Analyses of a Transnational Urban Network," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(11), pages 2027-2046, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:43:y:2006:i:11:p:2027-2046
    DOI: 10.1080/00420980600897842
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420980600897842
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420980600897842?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scott, Allen J. (ed.), 2001. "Global City-Regions: Trends, Theory, Policy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297994.
    2. Allen J. Scott, 2001. "Globalization and the Rise of City-regions," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(7), pages 813-826, October.
    3. Ann Markusen, 2003. "Fuzzy Concepts, Scanty Evidence, Policy Distance: The Case for Rigour and Policy Relevance in Critical Regional Studies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6-7), pages 701-717.
    4. John Friedmann, 1986. "The World City Hypothesis," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 69-83, January.
    5. Edward J. Malecki, 2002. "The Economic Geography of the Internet’s Infrastructure," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(4), pages 399-424, October.
    6. P J Taylor & R E Lang, 2004. "The Shock of the New: 100 Concepts Describing Recent Urban Change," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(6), pages 951-958, June.
    7. P J Taylor, 1999. "So-Called ‘World Cities’: The Evidential Structure within a Literature," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(11), pages 1901-1904, November.
    8. Derudder, B. & Witlox, F., 2005. "On the use of inadequate airline data in mappings of a global urban system," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 231-237.
    9. Jennifer Robinson, 2002. "Global and world cities: a view from off the map," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 531-554, September.
    10. Matsumoto, Hidenobu, 2004. "International urban systems and air passenger and cargo flows: some calculations," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 239-247.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Derudder, Ben & Witlox, Frank, 2008. "Mapping world city networks through airline flows: context, relevance, and problems," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 305-312.
    2. Virginie Mamadouh & Luiza Bialasiewicz & Anna Growe & Kati Volgmann, 2016. "Exploring Cosmopolitanity and Connectivity in The Polycentric German Urban System," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 107(2), pages 214-231, April.
    3. Natalia Zdanowska, 2019. "Spatial polarisation within foreign trade and transnational firms' networks. The Case of Central and Eastern Europe," Papers 1910.14658, arXiv.org.
    4. Mike Hodson & Simon Marvin, 2009. "‘Urban Ecological Security’: A New Urban Paradigm?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 193-215, March.
    5. Zachary Neal, 2014. "Validity in World City Network Measurements," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(4), pages 427-443, September.
    6. Christof Parnreiter, 2014. "Network or Hierarchical Relations? A Plea for Redirecting Attention to the Control Functions of Global Cities," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(4), pages 398-411, September.
    7. Fenghua Pan & Ziyun He & Cheng Fang & Bofei Yang & Jinshe Liang, 2018. "World City Networks Shaped by the Global Financing of Chinese Firms: A Study Based on Initial Public Offerings of Chinese Firms on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, 1999-2017," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 751-772, September.
    8. Nathalie Van Nuffel & Ben Derudder & Frank Witlox, 2010. "Even Important Connections Are Not Always Meaningful: On The Use Of A Polarisation Measure In A Typology Of European Cities In Air Transport Networks," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 101(3), pages 333-348, July.
    9. Chubarov Ilya, 2015. "Spatial hierarchy and emerging typologies inside world city network," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 30(30), pages 23-30, December.
    10. Tony H. Grubesic & Timothy C. Matisziw, 2011. "World Cities and Airline Networks," Chapters, in: Ben Derudder & Michael Hoyler & Peter J. Taylor & Frank Witlox (ed.), International Handbook of Globalization and World Cities, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Zhongfan JING & Guang ZHANG, 2016. "On the Structural Features of Scientific and Technological Innovation Network in China’s Urban System: Based on the Analysis of Cooperation Network of High-Level Papers," Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 4(04), pages 1-22, December.
    12. Krzysztof Janc, 2015. "Visibility and Connections among Cities in Digital Space," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 3-21, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. B. Derudder & F. Witlox, 2005. "An Appraisal of the Use of Airline Data in Assessing the World City Network: A Research Note on Data," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(13), pages 2371-2388, December.
    2. Renato A. Orozco Pereira & Ben Derudder, 2010. "Determinants of Dynamics in the World City Network, 2000-2004," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(9), pages 1949-1967, August.
    3. Lee, Ho-Sang, 2009. "The networkability of cities in the international air passenger flows 1992–2004," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 166-175.
    4. Delphine Ancien, 2011. "Global City Theory and the New Urban Politics Twenty Years On," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(12), pages 2473-2493, September.
    5. David Bell & Mark Jayne, 2009. "Small Cities? Towards a Research Agenda," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 683-699, September.
    6. Kathy Pain & Gilles Van Hamme & Sandra Vinciguerra & Quentin David, 2016. "Global networks, cities and economic performance: Observations from an analysis of cities in Europe and the USA," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(6), pages 1137-1161, May.
    7. Csomós, György & Tóth, Géza, 2016. "Exploring the position of cities in global corporate research and development: A bibliometric analysis by two different geographical approaches," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 516-532.
    8. Matthew C. Mahutga & Xiulian Ma & David A. Smith & Michael Timberlake, 2010. "Economic Globalisation and the Structure of the World City System: The Case of Airline Passenger Data," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(9), pages 1925-1947, August.
    9. O’Connor, Kevin, 2010. "Global city regions and the location of logistics activity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 354-362.
    10. Po-Fen Tai, 2013. "Gender Matters in Social Polarisation: Comparing Singapore, Hong Kong and Taipei," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(6), pages 1148-1164, May.
    11. Marieke Krijnen & David Bassens & Michiel van Meeteren, 2017. "Manning circuits of value: Lebanese professionals and expatriate world-city formation in Beirut," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(12), pages 2878-2896, December.
    12. Volgmann, Kati, 2012. "Neue Kerne in metropolitanen Räumen: Polyzentrische Strukturen und Funktionen im Metropolraum Rhein-Ruhr," Arbeitsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Growe, Anna & Heider, Katharina & Lamker, Christian & Paßlick, Sandra & Terfrüchte, Thomas (ed.), Polyzentrale Stadtregionen - Die Region als planerischer Handlungsraum, volume 3, pages 203-216, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    13. Jennifer Robinson, 2011. "Cities in a World of Cities: The Comparative Gesture," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 1-23, January.
    14. Bo Liu & Desheng Xue & Yiming Tan, 2019. "Deciphering the Manufacturing Production Space in Global City-Regions of Developing Countries—a Case of Pearl River Delta, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-26, December.
    15. James Rees & Alex Lord, 2013. "Making space: Putting politics back where it belongs in the construction of city regions in the North of England," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 28(7-8), pages 679-695, November.
    16. Walter J. Nicholls, 2011. "The Los Angeles School: Difference, Politics, City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 189-206, January.
    17. Eugene J. McCann, 2004. "Urban Political Economy Beyond the 'Global City'," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(12), pages 2315-2333, November.
    18. Benoit, Florence & Belderbos, René, 2024. "International connection, local disconnection: The (heterogeneous) role of global cities in local and global innovation networks," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(3).
    19. Thailand Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board & World Bank, 2010. "Industrial Change in the Bangkok Urban Region," World Bank Publications - Reports 27380, The World Bank Group.
    20. Olga Gritsai, 2004. "Global Business Services in Moscow: Patterns of Involvement," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(10), pages 2001-2024, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:43:y:2006:i:11:p:2027-2046. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.