Premium
Cities and nested hierarchies
Author(s) -
Hill Richard Child
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
international social science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.237
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1468-2451
pISSN - 0020-8701
DOI - 10.1111/j.0020-8701.2004.00500.x
Subject(s) - interdependence , economic geography , optimal distinctiveness theory , globalization , context (archaeology) , hierarchy , regional science , order (exchange) , geography , economic system , global city , political science , economic growth , sociology , economics , social science , psychology , archaeology , finance , law , psychotherapist
We need a more nuanced way of looking at the relationship between globalisation and the city; a framework that can accommodate substantial differences as well as growing similarities among world metropolises and give both global integration and local distinctiveness their rightful due. I propose and illustrate one such framework in this paper, based upon the principle of nested hierarchy. In the view espoused here, cities are lodged within an interdependent world order divided among differently organised regional formations and national systems. The economic base, spatial organisation and social structure of the world's major cities are determined by the entire multi‐level configuration – global niche, regional formation, national development model, and local historical context – in which each city participates. Growing interdependence in the global whole is perfectly consistent with differentiation within and among regional, national, and city levels of the system. As constituent elements of the global order, cities both facilitate the globalisation process and follow their own, relatively autonomous trajectories.