The cliquishness of world cities

Abstract Through an exploratory analysis of the world city network, we confront the dearth of studies on inter‐urban networks on a global scale. In the first section, we outline how a formal theoretical specification of the world city network as a social network has guided an extensive data gathering effort. Through this specification it becomes possible to apply standard techniques of network analysis to world cities. In the second section we outline a framework within which to explore the complex patterns that arise from the formal specification of the world city network. The conjectural use of connectivity, world city cliques and clique‐by‐clique comembership is then used in the third section as the input to an exploratory analysis of the measures of connectivity at different thresholds. The main findings are the two city dominance of the New York–London dyad, and the observation that inter‐city links at the global level retain an important regional dimension. Exemplary cases are the thorough interrelatedness of North American, Pacific Asian and European world cities.     

Understanding the position of end nodes in the world city network: using peer city analysis to differentiate between non‐hub cities

In the current debate on the world city network and inter‐city connectivity, a large number of cities, particularly in developing countries, have received limited attention. Despite a growing interest in emerging market cities, many scholars still focus on the more affluent parts of the global economy. In an attempt to redress this imbalance, I present an assessment for use on cities that are not at the centre of the network; but what we consider ‘end nodes’. I build my argument on Taylor's interlocking model for assessing city connectivity and zoom in on the types of networks that non‐hub cities create through their inter‐linkages with so‐called peer cities in the same economic sector. I take these ego networks as a starting point and then lead the argument on to view city networks from a non‐hub perspective. This allows me to identify the existing linkages between different peer cities within as well as between selected city networks. The renewable energy business in India puts this argument to an empirical test. My findings confirm that this way of looking at city connectivity allows one to assess specifically for city end nodes and thereby contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the world city network.     

How manufacturing industries connect cities across the world: extending research on ‘multiple globalizations’

In this article, I concentrate on a macro‐level analysis of inter‐urban linkages in a ‘world city network’. Empirical research on the formation of a world city network has mostly concentrated on global service providers. Yet, globally operating manufacturing firms also choose distinct urban regions throughout the world as locational anchoring points. In this article, using social network analysis, I present the first global‐scale analysis of how manufacturing firms connected cities across the world (in 2010). To detect the differing ‘sectoral profiles’ and nodal centralities of cities functioning as geographical hubs of transnational production networks, it is necessary to analyse the network structure of distinct industrial subsectors within the global urban system. The data collected for analysis cover 120 top global firms from three manufacturing subsectors, of which two are analysed in more detail than the third. I then compare the nodal centralities of cities included in these subsectors' global networks with the GaWC research on the producer services sector that has been at the centre of previous analyses of the world city network. The comparison reveals the cities' differing positioning within ‘multiple globalizations’. The aim of the article is to extend research on world city networks.     

Exploring the joint dynamics of intercity internet and corporate networks: a stochastic actor‐based modelling approach

In this article, I show one possible solution to synthesis dynamics in multiple intercity networks. I adopt a stochastic actor‐based modelling approach to explore the co‐evolution of an intercity corporate network of 57 globalized advanced producer service firms across 93 cities, and another intercity internet network between these 93 cities, for the period 2004–2010. Stochastic actor‐based models (SABMs) help to connect interactions among cities and firms on the local scale with empirically observed networks on the global scale. My analysis accounts for the co‐evolution/interdependence among multiple world city networks (WCNs) and associated network changes in individual WCNs with exogenous city‐related covariates and endogenous local network structures.     

The duality of world cities and firms: comparing networks,hierarchies, and inequalities in the global economy

Much of the research on globalization conceives of the global economy as structured by networks among places, while separately organizational research has examined the role of networks among firms in structuring competition, collaboration, and cooperation. In both cases, position and centrality within the network confers certain advantages and disadvantages, the distribution of which defines a hierarchy. In this article, I explore the idea of dual networks of world cities and firms, then use Breiger's approach to define two such networks: one among 313 world cities, another among 100 advanced producer service firms. Comparison of the degree of inequality in the hierarchies implied by these networks suggest that world city hierarchies are steeper than firm hierarchies (that is there is greater inequality among cities). Thus, even under conditions of footloose global capitalism, place still matters: where a producer is located has more impact than who provides support services.     

Moving images: world cities,connections and projects in Sydney's TV production industry

World city research concerned with connectivity has tended to focus on advanced producer service firms and on selected North American and European cities; the prevailing methodology has been quantitative. In this article I answer the call to ‘go beyond counting’ by bringing together a project‐based enquiry — on a TV mini‐series Mary Bryant— with a more conventional assessment of network connectivity. The inclusion of a practice‐centred approach to this case study adds the performative data to the network, highlighting the actions and processes of those involved in maintaining the city networks. Furthermore, I demonstrate how this method of analysis is more suited to the study of project‐based cultural industries and highlight the role of Sydney in the global television industry — a city hitherto under‐explored in world city literature.     

NETWORKS AND SELECTION IN INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION TO SPAIN

We offer fresh evidence on the effect of migrant networks on two essential aspects of migration: (1) the total scale of migration and (2) the skill composition of migration. Our analysis is for the remarkable case of Spain, which experienced a full‐blown immigration boom from the mid‐1990s up to the Global Financial Crisis. To accommodate flexible substitution patterns across alternative migrant destinations, we use a three‐level nested multinomial logit model. We find a strong positive network effect on the scale of migration and a strong negative effect on the ratio of high‐skilled to low‐skilled migrants. Simplifying restrictions on the structure of cross‐destination substitutability are rejected by the data. (JEL F22, J61)     

Infrastructure of mobility: navigating borders,cities and markets

In this article, which is based on research conducted in Hong Kong from 2010 to 2013, and again in 2018, I analyse the region‐bound circulation of independent women sex workers from the Philippines across the Asian global cities of Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Macau. Migrating as visa‐free tourists, they maintain a valid immigration status and maximize their income in the informal economy by adopting a step‐down transient mobility pattern characterized by a downward hierarchical circulation to multiple city‐states and country destinations. As I show, their multinational migration is produced and structured through the instrumentalization of a mobility infrastructure constituted by a regime of visa‐free circulation, transportation developments, commercialized migration services, and social networks. In this article, I attempt to extend the contemporary analysis of unauthorized migration by moving away from the prevailing focus on incorporation and settlement and towards an examination of the logics and mechanics of migration flows that occur outside state‐sanctioned channels.     

Attending to the world: competition,cooperation and connectivity in the World City network

World Cities are acknowledged to be a key aspect of globalization. In many accounts, these cities are depicted as rivals in a global marketplace, their economic success a result of their competitive advantage. However, what has not been fully acknowledged is their connectivity and, in addition, the time and effort taken by specific ‘attendants’ to produce the World City network. Accordingly, this article aims to advance understanding of World City network formation by developing a conceptual model that focuses on four major attendants (firms, sectors, cities and states) that enact network formation through two nexuses —‘city‐firm’ and ‘statesector’— and two communities —‘cities within states’ and ‘firms within sectors’. The utility of this model is demonstrated by drawing upon interviews conducted in offices of 39 advanced producer service firms in banking and law. These interviews were undertaken in three World Cities (London, New York and Singapore) in the wake of the East Asian financial crisis, an event that challenged the consistency of the World City network. Showing how attendants sought to maintain and transform the World City network at this key moment of crisis, we conclude that studies of city competitiveness ultimately need to focus on the cooperative work that sustains global networks.     

Neighborhood co-offending networks,structural embeddedness,and violent crime in Chicago

Neighborhood disparities in crime are a persistent feature of U.S. cities. Scholars have documented that both local structural conditions and characteristics of spatially proximate communities influence neighborhood crime rates. Previous studies on neighborhood inequality in crime, however, are limited by their focus on identifying average spillover effects between pairs of spatially contiguous neighborhoods, and have neglected to consider how the broader social organization of the city influences local outcomes. This study examines the role of neighborhood-level criminal networks in shaping the distribution of crime throughout cities. Employing arrest records and survey data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, we construct a neighborhood-level co-offending network for Chicago for 2001. We use this network to investigate how a focal neighborhood’s homicide rate is influenced by its structural embeddedness within the larger inter-neighborhood co-offending network. Results indicate that a neighborhood’s embeddedness increases the local homicide rate, even after controlling for the neighborhood’s internal propensity toward crime and accounting for unobserved spatial processes.     

Job-search Networks and Wage Attainment in China: A Comparison of Job Changers and Non-changers

This article examines job-search networks and entry-level wage attainment using data from a large-scale survey conducted in eight cities in China in 2009. Two key issues are addressed: (i) how the use of social networks is associated with entry-level wage attainment in urban China, and (ii) whether the patterns of network effects on entry-level wage differ between job changers and first-job seekers. The results show that both strength of ties and social resources of job-search networks are significantly associated with entry-level wage attainment, and that the network effects on entry-level wage are greater for job changers than for first-job seekers. This study offers a solid empirical verification of the associations of weak ties with information and strong ties with influence in an analysis of entry-level wages for job changers and first-job seekers.     

Catholic Versus Communist: An Ongoing Issue—The Role of Organizational Affiliation in Accessing the Policy Arena

This article analyses the role of organizations’ ideological affiliation in shaping information networks within civil society and in granting access to the political sphere. It investigates whether the Catholic and Leftist affiliation of organizations impacts in the city of Turin (Italy) and Kielce (Poland). Applying different social network analysis techniques, the article finds that in both cities there is a tendency towards preferring similar partners. However, while the influence of affiliation is relevant to predict the access to policy making in Turin, in Kielce, this influence is mediated by the actor’s centrality in the social sphere. In both cities, networks are characterized by the higher centrality of Catholic organizations, which also translate in a greater involvement in the political sphere. Twenty-five years after the end of the cold war, past-affiliation is still a strong predictor of political involvement and impacts on the shape of local governance structure.     

Social Capital,Labour Markets,and Job‐Finding in Urban and Rural Regions: comparing paths to employment in prosperous cities and stressed rural communities in Canada1,2

This paper compares paths to employment (job‐finding) in prosperous cities and economically‐stressed rural communities in Canada. Since the pioneering work of Mark Granovetter (1973; 1974 ), sociologists have investigated the role of social capital in job‐finding (specifically, the use of strong and weak social ties to find out about employment opportunities). To date, however, there have been few direct comparisons of job‐finding in urban and rural settings (see Lindsay et al., 2005 ; Wahba and Zenou, 2005 ). Using data from two major surveys and a qualitative interview project, we uncover several important differences in urban and rural paths to employment. First, we find that both strong and weak ties are used more frequently by rural residents to find a job, while city‐dwellers rely more often on formal or impersonal means. Second, we find much stronger evidence of differentiation within rural regions. Long‐time rural residents are much more likely to use strong and weak ties to find employment than are newcomers. However, rural residents who used weak ties as paths to employment have significantly lower incomes. None of these patterns are evident in the cities. Together, these findings lead us to conclude that job‐finding in rural settings is strongly affected by constraints – in the labour market and in social capital resources – that are not present in cities.     

网状城市群：都市圈发展的创新模式

经济全球化使城市结构出现一种新的多中心格局。如果两个或两个以上原本独立的城市在城市功能方面具有互补的潜力,那么,依托快捷可靠的交通和通讯基础设施以及相互之间的合作,可以实现规模经济,从而促生网状城市群。这种创新的网状城市群是以研发、教育和创意产业等知本作为发展重心的。网状城市间的合作机制与公司间的网络相似,即每个成员城市都能从互惠措施、知识交换以及科技创新等具有互动性的协同发展中得到好处。本文具体探讨了荷兰任士达（Randstad）地区和日本关西地区的两个案例。     

South‐South Migration and Urban Food Security: Zimbabwean Migrants in South African Cities

The drivers of food insecurity in rapidly‐growing urban areas of the Global South are receiving more research and policy attention, but the precise connections between urbanization and urban food security are still largely unexplored. In particular, the levels and causes of food insecurity amongst new migrants to the city have received little consideration. This is in marked contrast to the literature on the food security experience of new immigrants from the South in European and North American cities. This article aims to contribute to the new literature on South‐South migration and urban food security by focusing on the case of recent Zimbabwean migrants to South African cities. The article presents the results of a household survey of migrants in the South African cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg. The survey showed extremely high levels of food insecurity and low dietary diversity. We attribute these findings, in part, to the difficulties of accessing regular incomes and the other demands on household income. However, most migrants are also members of multi‐spatial households and have obligations to support household members in Zimbabwe. We conclude, therefore, that although migration may improve the food security of the multi‐spatial household as a whole, it is also a factor in explaining the high levels of insecurity of migrants in the city.     

‘Talkin' Jockney’? Variation and change in Glaswegian accent1

This paper presents an analysis of language variation and change in a socially stratified corpus of Glaswegian collected in 1997. Eight consonantal variables in read and spontaneous speech from 32 speakers were analysed separately and then together using multivariate analysis. Our results show that middle‐class speakers, with weaker network ties and more opportunities for mobility and contact with English English speakers, are maintaining traditional Scottish features. Working‐class adolescents, with more limited mobility and belonging to close‐knit networks, are changing their vernacular by using ‘non‐local’ features such as TH‐fronting and reducing expected Scottish features such as postvocalic /r/. We argue that local context is the key to understanding the findings. Mobility and network structures are involved, but must be taken in conjunction with the recent history of structural changes to Glasgow and the resulting construction of local class‐based language ideologies which continue to be relevant in the city today.     

Ecological lands for conservation of vascular plant diversity in the urban environment

Conservation of biodiversity in urban areas has become crucial to urban green area management. There are several legislative solutions for preservation of species and habitats in cities. One of them is ‘ecological lands’ – a low-restrictive form of protected areas in Poland. We aimed to assess their efficiency in vascular flora biodiversity conservation in the urban environment in Poznań (W Poland; 550,000 inhabitants). We hypothesized that ecological lands which cover <2% of the city area comprise over 50% of taxonomic diversity and over 90% of functional trait-level range of the vascular flora. Analysis of five ecological lands, which covered 1.8% of the whole city area confirmed our hypothesis. In ecological lands studied, we found 564 species of vascular plants, which is 52.9% of the whole city flora. These species belonged to 23 of 29 phytosociological classes represented in the whole city (73.9%). Functional trait distributions in ecological lands studied comprised from 95.8 to 100% of trait distributions in the flora of the whole city. Ecological lands seem to be a good way for conservation of biodiversity in urban areas. The legislative simplicity and low restrictiveness for both land management and recreational utility make ecological lands a much easier form of nature conservation which may be adapted to other cities for more efficient biodiversity management.     

The Interplay Between Gender and Structure: Dynamics of Adolescent Friendships in Single‐Gender Classes and Mixed‐Gender Classes

This study reviews theories on striving for closure in adolescent networks related to trust issues of adolescents and further examines whether adolescents in mixed‐gender and single‐gender classes are different in striving for closure. Stochastic actor‐based models for network dynamics are applied to test our hypotheses based on longitudinal friendship nominations of 406 Taiwanese adolescents in mixed‐gender, all‐boy, and all‐girl classes. The results show that adolescents strive for closure through connections of friends' friends. Further, the results reveal that while the tendency toward closure is stronger for girls in mixed‐gender classes, such tendency toward closure is stronger in all‐boy classes than in all‐girl classes. Testing effects between types of classes supports the indications of variances in striving closure.     

The world according to iTunes: mapping urban networks of music production

In this article, I present a social network analysis that explores and maps relational urban networks of production within the global recorded music industry. Within the analysis, recorded music albums are viewed as temporary market‐based projects that bring together teams of skilled creative workers in recording studios across the globe. New tools and techniques for networking studios in geographically distant locations give mobile musically creative workers the ability to coordinate musical recordings on a global scale, resulting in new relational geographies of music production. An innovative approach is taken to the social network analysis to assess the connectedness of cities and determine the centrality and power of cities within networks of production for three major Anglophone digital music markets. The result is a mapping of the relational urban networks of music production as indicated through the interdependencies between projects, studios and local urban agglomerations.