Institutionalising city networking: Discursive and rational choice institutional perspectives on membership of transnational municipal networks

This article analyses participants’ reasoning for their city’s membership in transnational municipal networks and the extent to which this changes over time. Theoretically, we build on new-institutional theory and conclude that although parts of the members’ reasoning have rational components, a discursive institutional perspective improves the understanding of cities’ membership of transnational municipal networks. This perspective uncovers how important aspects of transnational municipal network participation are motivated by a different logic than that of measurable output. Cities use transnational municipal networks as sources of internal and external legitimacy, to legitimatise their position in domestic politics and their international position among other ‘global’ cities.

Climate resilience interventions within global cities: How are cities addressing climate hazards and what’s missing?

This technical report focuses on global cities resilience against disaster risk, exploring key infrastructure within sectors and systems that are impacted by these climate hazards. The report explores the different adaptation management approaches taken by cities, from identifying potential climate hazards, calculating risks and the resulting impact on infrastructure within cities, and the types of interventions that cities have taken to address or reduce the likelihood or frequency of these risks.

Cultural Strategy at the Urban Periphery: The City of Parramatta

Since the 1990s, when the successful cultural-led urban renewal of cities like Bilbao and Glasgow held out the promise that peripheral cities, no less than world cities, could capitalise on culture, much urban cultural strategic planning has sought to gain global attention and achieve socio-economic growth. Such planning has produced mixed results in granting citizens access and production to their city. This essay looks at strategies in multicultural urban areas that lie at the margin of global cities, focusing on the City of Parramatta.

Benchmarking ride-hailing regulation in global cities using mixed-method approach and social practice theory

Ride-hailing or private hire has been around the globe for a decade now but even less in Asia. Singapore has had more than three revisions to its ride-hailing regulation in the six years since the arrival of the disruptive technology, the most for an Asian city. Often quoted in the list of cities with a commendable public transport policy, Singapore still manages to find a viable and significant position for ride-hailing. Singapore, to a large extent, has formulated a successful model based on current market parameters and, more importantly, an adaptive one that evolves constantly with the continually disruptive technology. But how does this compare to cities around the globe? Global cities have formulated different policy regulations for the sector, with each one of them enjoying varying degrees of success and failure. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach using qualitative and quantitative data, Singapore’s ride-hailing sector was benchmarked with chiefly nine global cities. The qualitative data was analyzed using the 3-element model of the social practice theory as an alternative to conventional behavioral studies, thereby eliminating bias on the commuters and rather shifting focus to the practice. The findings were validated by statistical analysis of quantitative data, namely, trip information from the ride-hailing sector in Singapore and driver earnings. The unique addition of the research to ride-hailing policy is the comprehension of the commonalities and patterns across industrial and technological disruption, practice and policy irrespective of sectoral variations thanks to the utilization of the social practice theory. The first-of-its-kind policy exercise in the sector can be repeated for any city, which is a direct testament to the simplicity and exhaustivity of the methodology, benefitting both operators and investors through equitable policy formulation.

URBAN MAGNETISM IN THE GLOBAL CITY FRAMEWORK: EXPLORING THE LINK BETWEEN URBAN FUNCTIONS AND POPULATION GROWTH

Dynamics in global processes have led to a number of political, economic and cultural changes that have resulted in the emergence of global cities. In the hierarchy of global cities, those who successfully use the limited available resources and offer an adaptable and flexible living environment, represent the most competitive global cities. Nonetheless, accelerated globalization has conditioned direct competition of global cities for different resources, and one of the most desirable being highly-skilled, talented and creative residents. In such conditions, city leaders face the need to understand the concept and factors of urban magnetism. The analysis of the determinants of urban magnetism can facilitate the formulation of concrete actions aimed at increasing the attractiveness of the city, which ultimately leads to the preservation of long-term socio-economic development of cities. Although financial wellbeing and incentives were considered to be a key factor of urban magnetism, contemporary research approaches have emphasized other factors that may influence urban attractiveness. Starting from that point of view, this paper aims to identify the main urban functions that influence the cities’ size with an analysis focusing on global cities worldwide. The panel regression analysis is applied to the sample of 39 global cities over the period from 2013 until 2019 and the data on urban functions are obtained from the Global Power City Index (GPCI). The results indicate that the size of the global cities population is positively affected by urban functions related to the cultural interaction and accessibility, while research and development function influences negatively on the size of the urban population. Results of the paper led to the conclusion that contemporary urban management strategies need to be defined and implemented aimed at improving the urban magnetism beyond economic performance of the city, focusing on sustainability and urban quality of life.

Good Ideas Archive

Cities of Migration was founded on a compilation of blog stories on good practices and policy solutions from global cities. The library of Good Ideas contains more than 325 profiles of promising practices, collected from 160 cities in 25 different countries. Good Ideas included successful city-level initiatives (either a program, activity or strategy) that was considered innovative, practical and exportable.

Good Ideas Archive

Cities of Migration was founded on a compilation of blog stories on good practices and policy solutions from global cities. The library of Good Ideas contains more than 325 profiles of promising practices, collected from 160 cities in 25 different countries. Good Ideas included successful city-level initiatives (either a program, activity or strategy) that was considered innovative, practical and exportable.