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POROUS EUROPE: EUROPEAN CITIES IN GLOBAL URBAN ARENAS
Author(s) -
TAYLOR PETER J.,
DERUDDER BEN
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-9663
pISSN - 0040-747X
DOI - 10.1111/j.0040-747x.2004.00337.x
Subject(s) - urban hierarchy , context (archaeology) , economic geography , globalization , hierarchy , economy , regional science , order (exchange) , political science , geography , global city , sociology , business , economics , demography , population , archaeology , finance , law
The notion that there is a European ‘system of cities’ or ‘urban hierarchy’ has been an attractive idea, since it appears to provide a coherent subset of cities to study within a regional context. Under conditions of contemporary globalisation, however, the spatial order of European cities can only be properly understood as a ‘porous Europe’. That is, it is impossible to sensibly discuss European intercity relations separate from an encompassing world city network. This paper therefore analyses 88 European cities in the context of a global urban analysis of 234 cities around the world. The main conclusion is that leading European world cities are specifically distinguished through their forming of global urban arenas. They should therefore not be thought of as being un‐European, but as a special kind of world city that is highly cosmopolitan in its intercity relations.