Brute Force and Sorting Processes: Two Perspectives on World City Network Formation

The interlocking network model has provided a framework for examining world city networks for over a decade. However, it implicitly adopts a ‘brute force’ perspective in which intercity linkages are forged by cities’ sheer economic size. This paper develops a complementary ‘sorting process’ perspective in which linkages are viewed as arising from the complex process through which firms are sorted into cities. It describes a new statistical test and associated computer program (ONEMODE) that permit the identification of linkages forged by a menon-random firms-into-cities sorting process. Such linkages warrant particular attention because they are driven by deeper but often unknown forces. Networks implied by both perspectives are illustrated and shown to exhibit several expected similarities and differences. These networks provide complementary views of the global urban system that can be combined to obtain more comprehensive understandings of the world city network. The paper concludes by discussing the approach’s limitations and directions for future research.