Urbanization and World City Formation in China

1. Urbanization and World City Formation in China Shanghai’s Shifting Position in National and Global Networks of Cities Michael Timberlake & Xiulian Ma University of Utah

2. Objectives of Research Program • Contribute to research identifying China’s leading cities • Document changes in Chinese cities’ relative importance in national and global city systems. • Address broader theoretical issues in political economy of globalization

3. Key Assumptions of Research • Cities grow and decline in the context of economic regions. • Such regions are nested, interlocking, and hierarchical. • As basing points in economic regions, cities serve to integrate these regions internally through their interrelations. • The leading cities in a region may serve as bridges across regions and hierarchical levels.

4. Key focus of presentation • China’s national system of cities • Chinese cities’ positions in the world system’s city system. • Identifying China’s “World Cities”

6. Increasing size of the urban population

7. Increasing level of urbanization

8. Underlying theme: China’s increasing participation in the global economy China ahead in foreign direct investment Published:  August 2003 --OECD Observer

9. And concomitant explosive economic growth

10. Have resulted in • Increasingly integrated national system of cities • Increasing centrality of key Chinese cities in the world system’s city system

11. Globalization and Cities: Theoretical Background

12. the “facts” many global processes are “place bound” the “dominant narrative” decentralization Globalization

13. natural resource extraction regime

14. manufacturing regime Tire “building” in Akron P-15 & D-24 HOOD ORNAMENT ASSEMBLY Detroit

15. finance regime

16. World Cities • nodes in the international system

18. “World Cities” • Major cities found throughout the world that “articulate” one major economic region with another major economic region, usually transnationally. • As in previous GaWC diagram, some world cities are more globally “central” than others.

19. Global Cities: Atop the World City Hierarchy • key nodes in the international system • sites for crucial “producer” services • sites for telecommunications centers • sites for financial control • sites for transnational markets • Global Control Centers

20. Global Control Centers: The Key Global Cities

21. New York

22. London

23. Tokyo

24. World System of Cities • The hierarchy extends through the world system, from the top global cities through the whole system.

26. Conceptualizing the Global Inter-City Transactions • Relative centrality in networks of overlapping intraorganizational control capacity across cities (e.g., from headquarters to branch offices)—Peter Taylor and associates. • Relative centrality in flow networks of commodities, people, and information.

27. Cities and International Transactions: Functions • economic flows Holiday Velour from L.L. Bean Select an item: TA 34658 Petite $79.00 Regular $79.00

28. Cities and International Transactions: Functions • political transactions

29. Cities and International Transactions: Functions • cultural flows Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood rocks out to "It's Only Rock and Roll" with tour bassist Darryl Jones, Saturday night at Ford Field

30. Cities and International Transactions: Functions • social (social reproduction) transactions

31. Cities and International Transactions: Functions • economic flows • political transactions • cultural flows • social (social reproduction) transactions

32. cities and international transactions: content • human transactions • material transactions • symbolic transactions

33. human information material economic political cultural social reproduction

34. economic flows • commodities and capital • orders and directives within and between firms • businessmen/women • labor migration

35. political flows • arms shipments • ambassadors • invasions • international treaties

36. cultural flows • designer clothes • popular music • scientific exchange • theater/dance troupes • literature • popular cinema

37. social reproduction • CARE packages and other humanitarian aid • family migration • “remittances” • personal mail, telephone calls, e-mail

38. Cities are hierarchically linked in such networks of globally-structured flows

39. Network Analysis and Network Data • Strict data requirements • input/output for every pair within an alleged network

40. Air passenger travel

41. Findings • National City System • Top Cities’Positions on Four Network Measures (Outflow, Betweenness, Closeness, and Outdegree), four time points (1992, 1995, 2000, and 2003).

50. Table 8. Blocks of Chinese cities, and network positions in 1992 and 2003 a The number in the parenthesis indicates how many cities the block includes. b “SP” = Semi-periphery, “P” = periphery, “D” =“Disconnected