1,223 research outputs found

    Testing a global city hypothesis : an assessment of polarization across US cities

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    Social polarization is perhaps most evident within the world's large cities where we can easily observe stark contrasts between wealth and poverty. A world city theoretical perspective has emerged that associates large cities importance in a global network of cities to the degree of internal polarization within these cities. The research reported here locates 57 large US cities within this world city hierarchy and then empirically examines the hypothesized positive association between global centrality and social polarization using a multivariate, cross-city analysis. The findings are mixed, with some evidence that global centrality increases income polarization, but only in the context of higher levels of immigration. There is no evidence that a city's centrality affects occupational polarization. We conclude by suggesting implications for the world city literature and future research

    EU politicization and policy initiatives of the European Commission: the case of consumer policy

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    European integration is increasingly contested in public. What are the policy consequences of this EU politicization? This article argues that politicization challenges the hitherto often technocratic mode of policy preparation in the European Commission. Increased public attention and contestation render the diffuse public a more relevant stakeholder for Europe’s central agenda-setter because future competence transfers to Brussels are more likely to be scrutinized in the public realm. This incentivizes Commission actors to generate widely dispersed regulatory benefits through its policy initiatives, particularly where an initiative covers publicly salient issues. Applying this expectation to 17 European consumer policy initiatives suggests that the Commission orients its policy proposals towards wide-spread consumer interest during periods of high EU politicization and issue salience. However, the mechanism is constrained by internal turf conflicts and anticipated Council preferences. These findings highlight that politicization entails both chances and risks for further, policy-driven integration in Europe

    Measuring hierarchical differentiation: connectivity and dominance in the European urban network

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    This paper presents an examination of the empirical merits of a set of spatial interaction indices for measuring hierarchical differentiation (i.e. dominance and connectivity) in a spatial network. To allow for the comparison of the degree of hierarchical differentiation in networks with different numbers of nodes/links, we propose to normalize the ratio between the real measures and the corresponding values for a rank size distribution in order to obtain readily interpretable measures of hierarchical differentiation. When applied to data on air passenger flows within Europe, the normalized indices, interpreted together, appear to give a good idea of the tendency toward hierarchical differentiation. The potential usefulness of this analytical framework is discussed in the context of studies on (transnational) inter-city relations and empirical assessments of changes in the spatial configuration of airline networks

    Reading and interpreting the gateways in contemporary cities: an educational perspective

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    This work aims at highlighting the teaching potentialities of urban geography, in particular the didactic value of gateways in contemporary cities. Therefore, after a reflection on the still fundamental pedagogical value of urban geography and its teaching tools, the paper provides a model of reading and interpreting the city through the study of connections between tourist flows and consumption models in specific urban places, that is to say, the traditional city gateways such as railway stations, ports and airports

    Methods for multilevel analysis and visualisation of geographical networks

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    The agency and geography of socio-technical transitions: the case of urban transport innovations

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    The objective of this cumulative thesis is to gain deeper insights into the interplay of agency and structure through the empirical example of emerging technologies in the context of Industry 4.0. To achieve this goal, it enriches the theoretical background from evolutionary economic geography with insights from transition studies and management studies. Empirically, the analysis focuses on novelty creation toward intelligent transport systems in an urban environment. This encompasses software solutions such as big data platforms for traffic management, the Internet of Things to create a network of various objects and subjects within the city, or the development of autonomous vehicles. This thesis formulates four overarching research purposes: (1) comprehending socio-technical transitions during Industry 4.0 from an agency-based perspective; (2) understanding how agency facilitates or hinders innovation development; (3) identifying the impact of multi-scalar and cross-sectoral relations; and (4) integrating different theoretical approaches to gain a holistic understanding of the empirical domain. The thesis adopts a qualitative research design with a philosophical grounding in critical realism, drawing on semi-structured expert interviews, literature reviews, and document and network analysis. The main contribution of this thesis rests on four distinct research papers. A systematic literature review sets the conceptual basis for the analysis, identifying future research avenues based on the existing research body. The first case study analyzes the development of an app-based solution for managing urban logistics in Barcelona from a multi-level perspective. The other two case studies investigate the evolution of advanced air mobility in Germany and the city of Hamburg

    Russia and the politics of extraverted urbanism in the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2018 FIFA World Cup

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    This chapter discusses the state’s role and the politics of space in a comparative analysis of the 2018 World Cup and 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian Federation. Critiquing the hegemonic use of ‘the Putin factor’ as an all-explanatory epistemological narrative in understanding developments in the new Russia, the authors argue that the two sports mega events have been critical for Russia’s internal spatial restructuring, even though they may still be entangled, like the case of any games of this sort, with soft power and soft nationalism. While Sochi was more place-centric, the FIFA World Cup is allocated to 11 different cities primarily across the European part of Russia. What is emerging in many of the host cities is mixed and spatially variegated: some significant and welcome material investments (such as new airports and improved central roads) but also contested developments, neglected areas, and poor planning (like oversized infrastructure aimed at satisfying the short-term needs of the event rather than the longer term needs of residents). Overall, both events represent shifts in Russia’s regional policies and a return of the federal state to urban development after years of neglect of this domain, but also highlight the contradictions of the new politics of space. Hence, this chapter examines such developments and the geo-political dimension of sport in Russia

    Network diversity and maritime flows

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    Coupled and interdependent networks constitute a relatively recent research field that has been so far little invested by port and maritime specialists. The extent to which certain ports benefit from being connected to multiple commodity flows in the maritime network has in fact been poorly addressed. A global database of merchant vessel inter-port movements that occurred in October and November 2004 allows building the respective weighted graphs of solid bulk, liquid bulk, container, general cargo, and passenger/vehicles. Main results underline a very strong influence of commodity diversity on the distribution of maritime traffics among ports and links between them. The research also underlines the role of different regional settings in the specialization of traffic flows
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