Choosing a site for the capital of Europe

The European Union has achieved internal cohesion and international economic recognition, but economics alone has not yet led to a united Europe. Although this cohesiveness strongly influence regions and cities, and cities have started to refer to their European background, the member nations continue to hold regional and urban planning power. Forced to take unanimous decisions, the European Council of Ministers maintained the doctrine of a unique capital for 40 years, provoking numerous urban and architectural visions while simultaneously accepting the existence of three provisional headquarters, Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. The host nations, Belgium, France and Luxembourg meanwhile oriented these cities to both European economic considerations and local needs.This article analyzes the logic that led to decentralization of the capital city functions, the reasons why cities were interested in hosting the European Communities, what individual cities and nations suggested and why the most obvious solutions were not adopted. The Maastricht Treaty, the ongoing strengthening of European and regional institutions, and the choice of the provisional headquarters as definite capitals in 1992 gives cause for hope that concepts based on European and regional necessities beyond the nation-state will now be elaborated. A European network of cities and regions including the three political capitals of Europe, as revealed by their infrastructures and buildings, seems to be the best expression of the meaning of European unity.     

The Asia-Pacific Rim's transport and telecommunications systems: spatial structure and corporate control since the mid-1980s

There is a need to move from discussing the Asia-Pacific Rim's leading port cities as shipping centres measured by container throughput. This shift in focus involves examining how different transport and telecommunications systems are interacting with each other at an international scale under the power and control of major world operators. Using a three-level network framework an attempt is made to illustrate and explain the formation of multilayered trade/communications corridors and hubs/headquarters in the Asia-Pacific Rim since the mid-1980s and to identify the factors affecting them. From this examination of spatial structure and corporate control three levels of cities in the Asia-Pacific Rim are recognised: first level cities with strong corporate representation in container shipping, air cargo, air passenger and telecommunications; second level cities with marked corporate representation in one but not all four modes; and third level cities with no marked corporate representation in any mode but with strong throughput. The third level includes the Asia-Pacific Rim's ‘true’ port cities. Perhaps the ambiguous category ‘port city’ should be reserved for them. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Knowledge,influence, and firm-level change: A geographic analysis of board membership associated with Canada’s growing and declining businesses

Clarification of the factors that drive business expansion and contraction is among the most important topics that can be addressed by research in economic geography and related disciplines. This study analyzes the development of Canadian business by examining the connection between firm-level growth and decline and elite knowledge and influence connections that Canadian businesses use to link themselves to other corporations and cities nationally and globally. The research focuses on the inter-firm and inter-city linkages embodied in the boards of directors of Canada’s leading corporations. Corporate directorships have an important geographic dimension, as firms invite people from a variety of places and backgrounds to serve on their boards. This study finds that board member selection practices among Canadian firms can be linked directly to business growth and decline. Benchmarking board composition against firm expansion and decline in terms of inflation-adjusted annual revenue change over the 1991–2006 period, this study shows that growing Canadian firms are associated with directors from a much broader range of national and international cities than firms that experienced decline over the same period. Firm growth in Canada thus appears to be related to boards encompassing diverse members from national and international locations, while firm decline appears to be associated with boards including more local and regional members. The conclusion interprets the implications of board member diversity and suggests that broadly-based boards can play a role in encouraging firm growth through access to elite knowledge and influence networks.     

Strategic globalizing centers and sub-network geometries: A social network analysis of multi-scalar energy networks

Over the past three decades, a multitude of studies have examined the relational properties of corporate networks as a proxy for analyzing interurban hierarchies and structures. While this has been important in illuminating the nature of global connectivity, a significant conceptual lacuna exists in understanding how a multi-scalar analysis of interurban networks informs a more complete understanding of the geographies of globalization, and how cities within these networks act as regional globalizing centers. Building upon the theoretical and methodological foundations of ‘world city network’ (WCN) research, this paper investigates the corporate networks of the energy industry as a historic driver of globalization using social network analysis from an Australia geographical perspective. Globally and nationally scaled energy networks derived from the Platts and Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) corporate lists are used to explore the convergence of nationally and globally articulated networks, and identify cities instrumental in the globalization of the national industry sub-networks. These are strategic ‘globalizing centers’ which, in contradistinction to ‘global cities’ or ‘world cities’ as broad classifications, play nuanced roles in anointing industry-specific circuits of capital and information. The analysis of two complementary yet distinct networks provides theoretical insight into how scale plays an integral role in defining/articulating interurban relations.     

Producing regionalism: regional movements, ecosystems and equity in a fast and slow growth region

Urban development pressures, preservation of environmentally sensitive areas and regional planning are the focus of current debates on regionalism in both fast and slow growth regions. Based on two cases—a campaign to preserve ecological integrity and reduce sprawl on the Oak Ridges Moraine in the Greater Toronto Area and Rochester’s anti-sprawl campaign for regional equity—the paper examines how two anti-sprawl campaigns brought to the fore alternative constructions of regionalism. In the fast growing Toronto region, citizen mobilization and upper tier intervention resulted in a legislative base for regionalism. In the slow growth Rochester region, the city had limited success in gaining regional redistribution. Such divergent outcomes relate to differences in intergovernmental relations, the city’s influence on the region, receptivity of suburbs to smart growth, and the potential for values of nature preservation and justice to mobilize regional coalitions.     

New York: the Big Apple in the 1990s

New York plays a fundamental role in the world economy as both a motor and beneficiary of globalization. This paper traces New York’s international ties in the 1990s. While the city’s global pre-eminence as a center of finance capital is well known, New York is also an important international center of corporate headquarters, business services, communications, tourism, and commercial real estate. Next, it reviews the spatial configuration of employment, with an emphasis on the overwhelming concentration of jobs in Manhattan, a reflection of the enormous agglomerative economies found there. Third, it notes the marginalized populations that have not benefited from globalization. Fourth, it addresses changing regimes of governance that have accompanied the city’s intersections with the global economy.     

Growth and decline in the Canadian urban system: the impact of emerging economic,policy and demographic trends

The Canadian urban system was first shaped by exogenous demand for staples and, subsequently, by the dichotomy between an industrial heartland and a resource based hinterland. Presently, transformations affecting the economy, policy-making and demography herald profound changes in the future configuration of the Canadian urban system. One possible scenario is a revival of the staples economy as economic globalization raises demand for commodities. Another scenario would entail a concentration of growth in large urban centres, by virtue of their attractiveness to specialized and high-order service occupations, two rapidly expanding economic sectors, and their strong pull on immigrants. In the case of either scenario, we can expect further polarization between growing and shrinking portions of the urban system (parts of the heartland in the first case and small urban areas in the second) in a neo-liberal policy context that is unfavourable to regional economic development interventions. The evolution of the Canadian urban system between 1971 and 2006 and present distributions of factors of growth and decline point to the second scenario, a growing large city-small city dichotomy. The article closes by discussing likely consequences of the resulting urban system configuration on labour market adjustments and public sector expenditure.     

Contesting racialization in a neoliberal city: cross-cultural collective formation as a strategy among alternative social planning organizations in Toronto

Many cities in the twenty-first century are increasingly culturally diverse and neoliberal due to processes of political, economic, and cultural globalization. While the need to examine the disjuncture between neoliberal ideology and practice remains paramount (Brenner and Theodore in Antipode 34(3):349–379, 2002), the implications of neoliberal policy on the actual experiences and activities of diverse groups in the city require further study (Hackworth in The neoliberal city: governance, ideology, and development in American urbanism, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2007). This article contributes to urban studies engaging discourses about the practical rather than purely ideological aspects of neoliberalism, and discourses about the experiences of racialization in North American cities. Through a case study of social planning practices in contemporary Toronto, the author shows how neoliberal policies have shaped social planning in Toronto since 1998, and how several cross-cultural organizations representing Chinese, continental-African, Latino-Hispanic and South Asian communities were compelled to develop a collective to jointly contest the racialization of their communities. The cross-cultural collective’s work forces a reconsideration of what constitutes mainstream Toronto and offers an alternative approach to the dominant social planning in the city; however, it is not sufficient to replace the pervasive neoliberal hegemony as long as it remains caught up within its structures.     

Multi-directional efficiency analysis-based regional industrial environmental performance evaluation of China

This study evaluates the environmental efficiency of industrial sectors of Chinese major cities. The multi-directional efficiency analysis (MEA) approach is utilized for evaluation; thus, both the integrated MEA efficiency levels and the efficiency patterns, which are represented by the variable-specific MEA efficiency according to each type of the industrial pollutant emission or discharge, of Chinese major city are detected. In addition, the industrial energy conservation and pollutant reduction potentials are measured, and the relationship between environmental pressure and income is explored at the regional level of China. The main findings include the following: (1) The MEA environmental efficiency increases in the economically less developed cities were faster than the cities in the well-developed region, which indicates that the inequitable nationwide industrial developments of Chinese cities have started to alleviate. (2) Although some Chinese cities show similar environmental efficiency levels, the undesirable output variable-specific efficiency patterns of these cities are diversified, and according to the variable-specific efficiency, the most possible efficiency increase potential of each Chinese major city can be identified. (3) An N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve exists in the industrial sectors of Chinese major cities. (4) Different Chinese cities should have different industrial pollutant reduction priorities: East China cities should pay more attention to their industrial waste gas emissions and industrial waste water discharges, while west China cities should mainly focus on their industrial soot and dust emissions, and solid waste discharges.

     

Multi-directional efficiency analysis-based regional industrial environmental performance evaluation of China

This study evaluates the environmental efficiency of industrial sectors of Chinese major cities. The multi-directional efficiency analysis (MEA) approach is utilized for evaluation; thus, both the integrated MEA efficiency levels and the efficiency patterns, which are represented by the variable-specific MEA efficiency according to each type of the industrial pollutant emission or discharge, of Chinese major city are detected. In addition, the industrial energy conservation and pollutant reduction potentials are measured, and the relationship between environmental pressure and income is explored at the regional level of China. The main findings include the following: (1) The MEA environmental efficiency increases in the economically less developed cities were faster than the cities in the well-developed region, which indicates that the inequitable nationwide industrial developments of Chinese cities have started to alleviate. (2) Although some Chinese cities show similar environmental efficiency levels, the undesirable output variable-specific efficiency patterns of these cities are diversified, and according to the variable-specific efficiency, the most possible efficiency increase potential of each Chinese major city can be identified. (3) An N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve exists in the industrial sectors of Chinese major cities. (4) Different Chinese cities should have different industrial pollutant reduction priorities: East China cities should pay more attention to their industrial waste gas emissions and industrial waste water discharges, while west China cities should mainly focus on their industrial soot and dust emissions, and solid waste discharges.     

Production space and regional industrial evolution in China

A growing literature on evolutionary economic geography concludes that regional industrial evolution is path-dependent and is determined by the preexisting industries. This study more accurately calculates the industry relatedness based on the co-occurrence approach to portray the production space of China’s manufacturing sectors and then examines the impact of industry relatedness on regional industrial evolution. The findings report that industry relatedness does underscore the regional structural change in China but shows significant regional differences in the evolution path. The coastal region has strong tendency of path dependence in its industrial evolution, while North West and South West break the path-dependent trajectory and transition into high productive sectors distant from their own production network. The results suggest that governmental policies can play a crucial role in creating new paths in the West. Institutions matter to allow the significant role of industry relatedness in driving regional industrial evolution.     

Russian cities at a crossroads

The research project `Changes in the Russian urban system after the dissolution of the Soviet Union' supported by the German Science and Research Society aims to reveal the impact of change in (1) the national and regional urban network, (2) the type and condition of Russian cities, and (3) the factors and actors affecting urban development. In this contribution the focus is made on the first task. The authors argue that visible stabilisation of the Russian urbanisation under crisis and/or under a new stage involves a good deal of restructuring and qualitative change. The hierarchy of the nation-wide functional centres is in flux. Within regions `alternative' foci attract industries, capital and people, and compete with regional capitals. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Institutional forces and retail change: a case study of Metropolitan Toronto

There is a growing interest in the development of purpose-built shopping centres, which now dominate the retail environments of many cities. Much of the past research has been directed at the impact of shopping centres on more traditional retail structures. More recently, however, there has been a recognition of the importance of those institutional forces that shape the internal character of shopping centres and ultimately determine their economic impact. This paper draws attention to these factors and discusses the control that leasing agreements and corporate policy have on shopping centre development. The whole discussion is set within the framework of metropolitan Toronto, which has for some time experienced the full impact of these institutional forces.     

Urban locations and Black Metropolis resilience in the Great Depression

Motivated by theoretical arguments about ethnicity and economics and by historical research on urban black communities in the United States, this paper investigates the resilience of the early twentieth-century Black Metropolis. The study tests hypotheses about changes during the Great Depression (1930–1940) in the advantages of various cities as locations of black communities’ ethnic economies, analyzing Census data on blacks’ representation in occupations reflecting the Black Metropolis’s professional, entrepreneurial, and cultural media pursuits. There is mixed support for the hypothesis that the nationally dominant urban centers of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia had the most resilient Black Metropolises, a finding that casts doubt on claims that black communities in such key places enjoyed exceptionally favorable locational advantages. Yet, the results support the hypothesis that northern cities were, overall, more resilient locations than southern cities, particularly for black professionals and entrepreneurs, affirming the argument that the urban North’s Black Metropolises were vital economic opportunity centers for these black communities’ upper- and middle-classes.     

Setting Shari’a standards: On the role, power and spatialities of interlocking Shari’a boards in Islamic financial services

This paper aims to refine earlier research on the geographies of Islamic financial services (IFS) through a study of how cities are being connected through interlocking directorates in Shari’a advisory boards of IFS firms. The relevance of this analysis is discussed against the backdrop of recent critiques of mainstream ‘world cities’ research because of structuralist and universalizing tendencies. By applying a network concept to the relationalities of world cities within financial circuits, we explore the nested city/firm/actor structure behind Shari’a board membership, and reassess the connectivity of cities in the IFS network in terms of the role and spatialities of interlocking Shari’a boards. The results show that Gulf cities, most notably Manama, Dubai and Kuwait City are particularly well-connected, while also mainstay financial centres outside the Middle East, such as London and New York are networked by interlocking board memberships of a global Shari’a elite. The dominant position of Manama is traced back to its role as a standard-setting city for Shari’a-compliant investments, which materializes through the enacted presence of an array of highly interlocked regulatory bodies and mediating elites.     

基于信息熵技术对地下水观测网的层次分类--以河北平原地下水观测网为例

针对目前地下水观测网存在的层次不清问题，提出了基于信息熵技术的新的分类方法。列举了观测网层次混乱问题的表现、原因和可能造成的后果，提出地下水观测网具有层次性，而且这种层次性必须与地下水流动系统的层次性对应；认为地下水观测网就是一种信号通讯网，水位信号具有可传递性、差异性以及衰减性等特征，可以运用信息熵理论中的互信息概念定量刻画观测孔之间的信息联系，并以这种信息联系程度作为观测孔层次分类的主要依据；以河北平原地下水观测网为例，研究了区域尺度和局部尺度观测网的分类，结果表明信息熵方法可以很好地解决此类问题。     

企业集团组织模式评价选择的AHP研究

通过对影响企业组织效能的主要因素分析,结合适应知识经济的要求把我国企业集团的组织形式分为“协调发展、独立经营”、“集中政策、分散管理”和“统一领导、集中经营”３种形式,并运用ＡＨＰ方法对企业集团的组织模式进行分析,研究,提出了一个企业组织模式分析评价、决策的方法。     

利用计算机实现综合解译圈定找矿靶区

主要论述用计算机代替手工实现综合解译的过程。该过程归纳为：从专业领域获取知识组织成专业模型，再将其转变翻译成知识模型，然后转移到计算机内实现推理目标。重点论述从专业模型到知识模型的过渡和推理目标的实现。通过在河北、山西的实践，证明用计算机综合解释圈定找矿靶区是可行的     

Determining factors of the development of a national financial center: the case of China

This study explores, theoretically and empirically, one of the important issues of the geography of finance, namely the location of high-level financial services. Specifically, we will try to explain why foreign financial services are spatially concentrated in a particular city so as to form a national financial center in China. By reviewing various forces behind the formation of a financial center, we argue that information problems have created the need for geographic agglomeration of financial activities based on the source of information. This is true even in an era when financial markets work through sophisticated telecommunication networks. Based on a survey of the actual location of multinational corporation (MNC) regional headquarters, and through investigation of reasons for the agglomeration of these headquarters, we anticipate that Beijing, as the prime source of policy information, is more likely than other Chinese cities to be the national pre-eminent financial center when the Chinese financial markets become more open to foreign firms in the near future. This study illustrates, using China as a case study, that geography still provides strong justification of why major financial services continue to have a high degree of spatial agglomeration in particular locations, despite the fact that the electronic transmission of information has substantially reduced the friction of distance.     

Universities and knowledge-based economic growth: the case of Delft (NL)

Knowledge about new technology is a main determinant of the competitiveness of cities and regions nowadays. It reduces the amount of uncertainty of companies in their daily operations. In addition, it is a basis for the establishment of new companies and the restructuring of old ones. The availability and use of knowledge has thus a major influence on the development of urban and regional economies. An amazingly small amount of research has been done on the knowledge capacity of cities to date, i.e. urban potentials to generate, store, transfer and use knowledge. This article explores therefore, the urban knowledge capacity in a theoretical and empirical sense. Attention will be given to essential urban knowledge activities, and to the comprehensive and complex nature of the phenomena involved. In addition, various planning tools aimed at knowledge-based economic growth will be considered, with a focus on differences between the actors involved, and opportunities and constraints for success. In the empirical part, the city of Delft in the Netherlands will serve as an example, particularly regarding local policies for knowledge-based growth. Delft is an interesting case given the abundant availability of new technology and the relatively low level of local new firm formation.