Goodbye Reykjavik : international banking centres and the global financial crisis

This empirical paper analyses how leading international banking centres (IBCs) have been faring under the 2008 global financial crisis. We aggregate data derived from The Banker's annual list of the world's leading banks at the city level to map changing levels of Tier 1 capital between 2007 and 2008 and returns on capital in 2008. The results point to a general but nonetheless variegated shift 'from West to East' in the world of IBCs. The paper concludes with a brief review of the implications for future research on financial geographies in general and the geographies of the financial crisis in particular

Small town development and urban illiteracy: comparative evidence from Leicestershire marriage registers 1754-1890

Mit dem Aufkommen einer allgemeinen Bildung im England der Frühmoderne werden die geographisch bedingten Bildungsunterschiede offenbar. Aus drei Kleinstädten mit jeweils unterschiedlichen Wirtschaftsfunktionen werden die anglikanischen Heiratsregister des Zeitraums 1754 - 1890 analysiert. Auf dieser Grundlage wird gefragt, wie sich zur Zeit der Industrialisierung in Kleinstadtgesellschaften vor allem die sozioökonomischen Unterschiede auf das Bildungsniveau auswirkten. Ferner wird nach Unterschieden zwischen einer Stadt und ihrer Umgebung gefragt. So werden Muster des Analphabetentums herausgearbeitet. Dabei zeigt sich ein enger und geschlechtsspezifischer Zusammenhang zwischen Analphabetismus und städtischen Beschäftigungs- und Sozialstrukturen. Bildung beeinflußte nur dann das Heiratsalter und verband sich mit großer Heiratsentfernung, wenn beide Gatten in der Lage waren, das Heiratsregister zu unterzeichnen. Anderenfalls rangierten sozioökonomische Bestimmungsfaktoren vor Bildungsfaktoren. (prf)'Geographical variations in literacy levels are a constituent feature of the long process of educational expansion in England. Based on the analysis of Anglican marriage registers for the period 1754 to 1890, the article explores patterns of illiteracy in three small Leicestershire towns with contrasting economic functions. Illiteracy levels were closely related to urban occupational and social structures, which also affected distinct gender differentials. Evidence on the effect of literacy on age at marriage and marriage distance suggests that demographic behaviour and spatial interaction were determined more by socio-economic factors than by the possession of literacy skills. Literacy attainment, however, was linked to extended marriage distances when both spouses could sign the register.' (author s abstract

Discussing imaginative geographies: Derek Gregory on representation, modernity and space

Discussing imaginative geographies: Derek Gregory on representation, modernity and spac

External relations of German cities through intra-firm networks – a global perspective

This paper adopts a global perspective to investigate external relations of German cities, both transnationally and on the national scale. At the centre of the analysis are the locational strategies of major advanced producer service firms that link the cities in which they operate through a multitude of flows. Using an interlocking network model and data on the organizational structure of leading business service firms, the paper measures and interprets the extent to which German cities were integrated in the world city network in 2008. The global positions and national network patterns of 14 major German cities are explored, as well as the sectoral strengths and geographical orientations of their external relations. The paper concludes with an assessment of the trajectory of German cities in the world city network between the turn of the twenty-first century and the onset of the current financial crisis. The analysis reveals a geography of advanced producer services that is polycentric in character but does not map directly onto the distribution of other metropolitan functions. In a longitudinal perspective, German cities experienced an absolute and relative decline in global network connectivity between 2000 and 2008, which raises questions about the changing strategic importance of German cities in the world city network

Interpreting identities: Doreen Massey on politics, gender, and space-time

Interpreting identities: Doreen Massey on politics, gender, and space-tim

Small town development and urban illiteracy: comparative evidence from Leicestershire marriage registers 1754-1890

"Based on the analysis of Anglican marriage registers for the period 1754 to 1890, the article explores patterns of illiteracy in three small Leicestershire [England] towns with contrasting economic functions. Illiteracy levels were closely related to urban occupational and social structures, which also affected distinct gender differentials. Evidence [of] the effect of literacy on age at marriage and marriage distance suggests that demographic behaviour and spatial interaction were determined more by socio-economic factors than by the possession of literacy skills. Literacy attainment, however, was linked to extended marriage distances when both spouses could sign the register." [excerpt

Heidelberg und seine Besucher: Ergebnisse der Gästebefragung 2000/01

Die Heidelberger Gästebefragung 2000/01 unterstreicht die Bedeutung der Stadt als Ziel des Städtetourismus. Die meisten der 1500 Befragten sind Freizeittouristen, welche die Stadt für einige Stunden oder über Nacht besuchen. Für sie ist Heidelberg die typische alte deutsche Universitätsstadt. Die wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten sind das Heidelberger Schloß und die Altstadt, eingebettet in die idyllische Landschaft des Odenwalds und des Neckartals. Heidelberg bietet zudem gute Einkaufsmöglichkeiten und eine große Vielfalt an Cafés, Kneipen und Restaurants. Die wichtigste Informationsquelle für Besucher sind Freunde und Verwandte, aber auch der lokale Verkehrsverein. Eine steigende Zahl der Gäste nutzt das Internet zur Vorbereitung ihres Besuches. Länger Verweilende erkunden die Stadt und ihre Sehenswürdigkeiten zu Fuß. Die Besucher zeigen sich vor allem von der Vielfalt an historischen Sehenswürdigkeiten, der Sauberkeit wie auch von der Sicherheit in der Stadt beeindruckt. Einige Gäste erleben eine zeitweise Überfüllung der Hauptattraktionen während der Sommerzeit. Deutsche Touristen empfinden das Preisniveau in Heidelberg als relativ hoch, während viele ausländische Touristen es als moderat einschätzen. Das Heidelberger Besucherprofil zeigt eine große Zahl ausländischer Übernachtungsgäste, die zumeist aus den USA und Japan stammen. Daher kann der Tourismussektor sensibel auf die wirtschaftliche Situation in den Herkunftsländern reagieren. Trotzdem ist und bleibt Heidelberg wegen seiner Geschichte, der romantischen Tradition, ebenso wie seiner Atmosphäre und guten Erreichbarkeit der Sehenswürdigkeiten ein äußerst wichtiges Reiseziel. Die meisten Besucher sind sehr zufrieden mit ihrem Aufenthalt und möchten wiederkommen. Langfristige Bindungen zwischen der Stadt und ihren Gästen helfen, ein positives Image der Stadt zu pflegen und sind entscheidend für den anhaltenden Erfolg des Städtetourismus in Heidelberg

Framing city networks through temporary projects: (trans)national film production beyond ‘Global Hollywood’

This paper advances research on external urban relations by drawing attention to the role of temporary project-based economic organisation in the formation of inter-firm links between cities. Through a novel empirical examination of (trans)national co-production in the motion picture industry, we reveal how such projects transcend the boundaries of individual production clusters and link urban centres within specific network configurations. Stripping away the ‘top layer’ of Hollywood’s commercially successful feature films, we undertake a social network analysis of film productions in four markets across three continents – China, Germany, France and Brazil – to provide a unique comparative analysis of networked urban geographies. Our findings show that film production networks are grounded in existing structural relations between cities. The spatial forms of these networks range from monocentric in the case of the French film market, to dyadic in the case of China and Brazil, to polycentric in the case of the German film market. Conceptually, we argue that adopting an inter-firm project-based approach can account for the ways in which complex patterns of inter-firm production relations accumulate to form (trans)national city-networks. Viewing city networks in this way provides an important alternative perspective to dominant conceptualisations of global urban networks as formed through corporate intrafirm relations

I feel as if I've been able to reinvent myself - a biographical interview with Doreen Massey

I feel as if I've been able to reinvent myself - a biographical interview with Doreen Masse

Megaregions reconsidered: urban futures and the future of the urban

We live in a world of competing urban, regional and other spatial imaginaries. This book’s chief concern has been with one such spatial imaginary – the megaregion. More particularly, its theme has been the assertion that the megaregion constitutes globalization’s new urban form. Yet, what is clear is that the intellectual and practical literatures underpinning the megaregion thesis are not internally coherent and this is the cause of considerable confusion over the precise role of megaregions in globalization. This book has offered one solution through its focus on the who, how and why of megaregions much more than the what and where of megaregions. In short, moving the debate forward from questions of definition, identification and delimitation to questions of agency (who or what is constructing megaregions), process (how are megaregions being constructed), and specific interests (why are megaregions being constructed) is the contribution of this book. The individual chapters have interrogated many of the claims and counter-claims made about megaregions through examples as diverse as California, the US Great Lakes, Texas and the Gulf Coast, Greater Paris, Northern England, Northern Europe, and China’s Pearl River Delta. But, as with any such volume, our approach has offered up as many new questions as it has provided answers. In this concluding chapter, we identify some of these questions as part of an ongoing reconsideration of megaregions and reformulation of a programme of research for those of us interested in megaregions and global urban studies more broadly. One of the main unresolved questions to arise out of this book is the status and position of the ‘megaregion’ within global urban studies. This extends much further than the immediate focus of this book, so one of our aims in this final chapter is to connect the contribution(s) of this collection to contemporary debates centred on urban futures and the future of the urban. The book has presented multiple pathways into the megaregion debate and we have identified four to develop further in this chapter, which are: (1) competing or complementary spatial imaginaries; (2) megaregional glocalization; (3) utopian/dystopian urban dreams; and (4) urban history, periodization and temporality. To foreground this, we begin with three examples which caught our eye in the short period we were writing this chapter. They serve as an important reminder both of the continuing influence of megaregions within popular public discourses and the need for the type of more critical analysis that this book promotes