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Network or Hierarchical Relations? A Plea for Redirecting Attention to the Control Functions of Global Cities
Author(s) -
Parnreiter Christof
Publication year - 2014
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/tesg.12095
Subject(s) - plea , argument (complex analysis) , global city , global network , control (management) , core (optical fiber) , sociology , political science , positive economics , epistemology , regional science , economics , computer science , law , management , computer network , telecommunications , biochemistry , chemistry , philosophy
The paper discusses in a personal appreciation of the literature whether the ‘interlocking world city network model’ ( IWCNM ) has contributed to overcoming the evidential crisis of world or global city research. After a brief summary of the main arguments made by John F riedmann and Saskia Sassen, the paper deduces methodological implications that follow from their economic‐geographical conceptualisation of global cities. In the third and fourth sections of the paper I recapitulate the rationale(s) given by P eter T aylor for the IWCNM and assess the model's contribution to empirically corroborating the global city concept. The paper's main claim is that the IWCNM bypasses the theoretical core of the global city paradigm, for which reason an evidential crisis continues to undermine the strength of the global city argument. Accordingly, in the last section of the paper a research strategy is proposed that is apt to take global city studies a step forward.