GaWC Projects

This research project (1) presents an analysis of Chengdu’s connectivity profile in the global economy by making use of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network’s operational database for researching cities at the global scale and (2) presents a grounded interpretation of this profile based on fieldwork and site visits in Chengdu in August 2018.
[Results: Report]

The aim of the geography of African investment report is to contribute to development policies that can turn African cities into more attractive, competitive and resilient foreign direct investment (FDI) destinations.
[Publication: The State of African Cities 2018]

‘Polycentric urban regions’ (PURs) have become a key concept in regional studies, both as an analytical framework to capture empirical realities as well as part of normative visions and goals in regional development policies. Nevertheless, PUR research and policy-making is built on surprisingly limited comprehensive evidence and hampered by the lack of coherence. The RSA Research Network on PURs aims to expand our understanding of the prevalence, significance, future development and policy implications of PURs. It strives to become the chief organisational framework for cutting-edge multidisciplinary PUR research by bringing together the major research groups and the key themes/approaches and the analytical interconnections they represent.

This research project explores the spatial configurations of hyperlink networks at the interface of web mining and social network analysis.
[Publication: RB 439]

This is a Research Networking project that brings together contemporary global cities scholars with urban historians.

This 3 day international conference in Loughborough, 7-9 September 2015, will examine the current state of empirical research (and the methodological approaches we possess) for conceptualising global urban complexity – or as we are putting it, doing global urban research.
[Publication: Doing Global Urban Research]

The ARL International Summer School 2014 will build on the conceptual and empirical work that has put the study of external relations of cities centre stage in recent years. It will bring together distinguished academics and young researchers working in the field of global urban studies and will stimulate discussions, develop new insights and establish the need and nature of future research.
[Publication: Global Cities Research and Urban Theory Making (Environment and Planning A theme issue)]

This research project takes advantage of GaWC's longitudinal measurements to explore the analytical possibilities of network-analytical approaches to understanding change in the world city network. Examples include the application of exponential random graph modeling, alluvial diagrams, etc.
[Publication: RB 410]

This is a follow up of Projects 71 and 94 to update measurement of the world city network by constructing a service values matrix for 175 leading advanced producer services firms across 526 cities. In this case the data collection is taking place in Ghent.

The aim of the project is to understand the relationships between the port city (Genoa) and the global city (Milan and Rome). In the first step we use the method of GaWC to represent the integration of Italian cities in the inter-urban networks generated by the location of advanced services firms. In a second step, we focus on Genoa and Milan in order to analyze the relationship between the companies and the port city/global city, with regard to access to finance, information, competitors, as well as other service sectors, according to the distinction between location economies (port city) and urban economies (global city).
[Publication: RB 438]

This is an intensive research case study that is attempting to understand Chengdu's remarkable recent and current economic growth through intensive study of successful medium and small firms.
[Aide Memoire]
[Results: Report]

This is a follow up of Project 71 to update measurement of the world city network by constructing a service values matrix for 175 leading advanced producer services firms across 526 cities. In this case it is a GaWC collaboration with the Centre for Cities and Competitiveness at CASS.
[Publications: RB 392, RB 407, RB 408, RB 413]

The overall scientific objective of this IOF research project is to examine recent world city network (WCN) evolutions, with a specific focus on (i) how for Australia's leading cites (Sydney and Melbourne in particular) this evolution is being driven and shaped by the booming economies/connectivities of China's leading cities (Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong in particular) and (ii) the wider implications of the latter for Europe's major metropolises. The overall methodological framework in which the research will be carried out is GaWC's interlocking network model, but this project will also seek to tease out novel methodological approaches such as social network analysis for understanding (evolutions in) the WCN.

The task of this project is to define the relative position of the Dutch North-Wing within international foreign direct investments. The study considers inward and outward investments (2000-2009) within NUTS 2 regions.
[Results: Report, Visualization]

This project is analyzing the impact of globalization on Europe's territorial structures and the ways in which its territories are positioning Europe in the world. The results of the study will be examined in a political context in order to identify their relevance for policy on European competitiveness and cohesion.
[Result: Final Report]

This is a project that is using and developing GaWC methods to understand how Spanish cities are adapting to contemporary economic globalization with particular focus on Madrid.
[Publication: RB 416]

This workshop took the form of a dialogue on Dublin's position in the world city network linking the distinctive understanding of cities offered by GaWC and the identified need of the city of Dublin for collaboration and networking with other cities across the world.
[Result: Report]

This is a one-year experiment in using Google search counts to monitor how cities are faring in globalization month to month. Results are regularly reported and can be accessed from the home page.
[Results]

This International Research Initiative Scheme visiting fellowship, based in the Urban Research Centre, focuses on assessing Sydney's changing position as a leading Asian-Pacific financial centre, post the Global Financial Crisis.

The aim of this project is to identify and specify the relationship and interdependencies that exists between the wholesale and retail financial sectors in the UK, particularly in London's financial district.

The aim of this project is to undertake a desk-based study of the private asset and wealth management of the High Net Worth market in the UK's financial services industry with particular reference to the so-called 'mass affluent'.
[Publication: RB 389]

This is a multi-institutional ESRC Research Seminar Series investigating contemporary issues facing the 'professions' (like for example, architecture, consulting, health, legal services, real estate) in a context of significant restructuring and institutional change. Important issues for debate include: conceptualising the professions; globalization; diversity, difference and gender; and future challenges for the professions.

This project analyses the changing geography of international financial centres under the global financial crisis, using data derived from The Banker's annual list of the world's leading banks.
[Publication: RB 320]

This is the first follow-up research from Project 79. Interviews will be conducted in the Pakistani business community.

The project will provide new expertise in network analyses for further quantitative study of the service values matrix of 175 advanced producer service firms in 525 cities created through Project 71.
[Publications: RB 335, RB 350, RB 368, RB 369, RB 377, RB 378]

This research seeks to make important interventions into both academic and policy discussions about strategies for encouraging sustainable urban architecture and managing ‘best practice'. The project will examine building design firms as key actors in the production of sustainable urban environments and the way they participate in and exploit different networks and communities of knowledge that can inform the design of ‘green buildings'. The research will take a comparative approach and look at the similarities and differences in challenges and approaches to sustainable architecture in Australia and the UK.

The workshop was held on January 26-7 2009 and was attended by c. 100 public and private managers. The aim was to provide this group of leading citizens with new ways of thinking about their city through a GaWC perspective.

The purpose of this project is to disclose the main determinants of connectivity change in the world city network. This longitudinal analysis will be based on the different GaWC data gatherings in 2000, 2004, and 2008 respectively (see projects 10 and 71).
[Publication: RB 310]

This is a spin-off from Project 64 “Global Hearts of Commerce”. In the latter's production of an annual index of cities as worldwide centres of commerce it was inevitably found that cities in emerging markets were under-represented. This project rectifies this by redoing the exercise and customising measures for 75 cities in emerging markets.

This is a follow-up to Project 66 involving production of Executive Summary to be presented at Rio de Janeiro forum.

This is one part of a larger NESTA project on innovation entitled “Mapping and Measuring UK Absorptive Capacity” that uses GaWC connectivity measures in combination with other indices to define knowledge access for UK cities.
[Publication: Research Report]

Planning, researching and writing “Publication Series: Connecting Cities” for the congress themes: I. Networks; II. City Regions; III. China; IV. India; V. Megaevent Cities
[Publications: Connecting Cities Research Publications: Networks City-Regions China India Megaevent Cities]

This involves a reworking and extension of data collected on US cities for Asli Ceylan Oner's PhD Dissertation. The reworking involves adding selected cities and using a GaWC analysis to depict the US space economy as a space of flows.

The overall aim of this project is to use the creation of City Development Companies as a basis to develop new knowledges about the role of city-regions in the ongoing restructuring of the British state.
[Publication: RB 319, RB 326]

This is a large scale collaborative project that continues GaWC researches on the world city network. It is an update and revision of two ESRC-funded projects (Project 10 and Project 19).
[Publications: Global Urban Analysis; RB 289, RB 300, RB 310, RB 331, RB 349, RB 357]

This is a small pilot study to measure building activity on England's cathedrals and churches and relate it to city development and the medieval long economic cycle.

Project 69: Spaces of Business Education and the (Re)production of Financial Theory in Practice (D)
Funded by: ESRC (2008-2009)
Grant holder: Sarah Hall (University of Nottingham)
Research Associate: Lindsey Appleyard

This project aims to theoretically and empirically advance understandings of the relationship between professional financial education and financial services practice. In particular, the project focuses on the role of education offered by business schools, professional associations and specialist financial training companies. In so doing, the research will explore the ways in which London is becoming a centre of financial learning in addition to being a leading international financial centre.
[Publication: RB 329]

As the owners of the Davis and Federation Cups, the International Tennis Federation is responsible for over 100 ties in diverse countries across the world. It employs a “Minimum Standards” approach to selecting suitable venues in appropriate cities. GaWC provides research findings to aid in evaluation of cities competing to be hosts

This project was one of the winners in a competition to gain access to ALM data on lawyers and law firms through the Law Firms Working Group. It analyzes the spatial strategies of US law firms within and outside the United States by charting the development of office networks over time.

A comparative evaluation of services in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Santiago de Chile.

By the year 2050 10 polycentric city regions are expected to house 70% of the US population. The starting point is to identify these incipient megaregions today.
[Publication: RB 250]

Annual data collection and analysis exercise to find leading global and regional cities.
[Results: Worldwide Centers of Commerce]

Multiple projects assessing gateways between Milan and the world economy. Projects are assessed and developed in an iterative process.

This project extends the initial POLYNET research from South East England to the rest of the UK. It involves updating and adding to the original data for new analyses.
[Publications: RB 224, RB 227]

This project directs attention to the economic geography of slums - slums not as places of residence but as sites of economic production. It focuses theoretically and empirically on the nature of economic activity in slums, its rootedness in the slum and its connections to the wider urban economy. Extensive and parallel empirical studies will be undertaken in Dharavi and Klipspruit Valley, two well-known and large slum areas in Mumbai and Johannesburg.

The project aims to theoretically and empirically relate the two main globalization literatures on global commodity chains and world city networks. Specific analyses will focus on the servicing of the integration of post-communist countries as new EU member states and the expansion of European trade through new free trade agreements with Chile, Mexico and Central America.

The project aims to assess the impact of the emerging ‘creative class' and the rise of the ‘creative industries' on the competitiveness of EU metropolitan regions. A comparison of the recent socio-economic development trends and strategies in several metropolitan regions across Europe gives more insight in the extent to which creativity, innovation and knowledge are indeed the keys to a successful long-term economic development. The emphasis is made on the new ‘soft' location factors that are becoming crucial for attracting the required ‘talent pool' and strengthen the profile of metropolitan regions.
[Results]
[Publication: RB 306]

This research attempts to relate two world-systems literatures through interpreting world city networks as the servicing framework enabling global commodity chains.

Project 57: The Globalization and Regionalization of Transnational Headhunting Firms in Singapore and Asian-Pacific World Cities (B)
Funded by: Overseas Attachment Programme Fellowship, The National University of Singapore (2007)
Grant holder: Jon Beaverstock

Beyond Europe, the emerging markets of the Asian-Pacific are the most important growth regions for transnational headhunting corporations, with Singapore being one of the most significant hubs in the region (eight of the world’s top ten headhunters now have offices in Singapore). The aim of this research felllowship is to seek knowledge and understanding of the globalization and regionalization of the headhunting industry in Singapore and Asian-Pacific world cities and deepen well established ties with academic staff in the Department of Geography and the wider Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore, Singapore.

This project uses GaWC methodologies to investigate how Swedish cities are developing under conditions of contemporary globalization.

The aim of this ambitious three-year project is to describe and explain the expansion and current crisis of the modern world-economy through understanding the part played by ‘dynamic cities' in these processes.
[Publications: RB 316, RB 380, RB 427]
[Data: DS 25]

This project compares the development of the information and communication industry (ICT) in three regions of China: Beijing, Shanghai-Suzhou and Shenzhen-Dongguan. The study will offer a nuanced analysis of how external forces shape the local production network and in turn the innovation process, and contribute to a deeper understanding of the interplay of global/local networks in advancing technology for developing countries.

The nature of non-local work (its ‘stickiness') will be explored through interviews in New York, Detroit and Los Angeles of knowledge workers (both managerial and creative) in the advertising industry.

This pilot project uses historical data on the career mobility of 1000 scientists to explore the formation of European 'centres of scientific learning' between 1450 and 1900.
[Publication: RB 233]

This six month fellowship is intended for the development of a research strategy for interdisciplinary study of cities in developing countries being influenced by the location of globally dispersed production. The focus is on understanding the interface between local transformation processes in urban centres of the developing world with the demands generated by export oriented production in sectors such as Information Technology. The aim is to formulate research projects under the overall theme for funding from the Norwegian Research Council as well as to promote doctoral research on various issues identified in the research strategy.

This is a postdoc project to explore the application of GaWC methodologies to Brazilian cities for urban development policies.

This is a large project that aims to create a comprehensive set of decision making tools for assessing changes in the built environment at several scales. An integrated framework is developed to show how stakeholders can incorporate sustainability into their negotiations. As well as the usual environmental and economic inputs, this modelling includes a social dimension – the GaWC contribution is to understanding social capital. For more information see http://sue-mot.org/

London's financial district has become steadily more Americanised from the middle of the twentieth century onwards. Following the widespread regulatory changes in London in the 1980s, this process has been reflected in a change in industry nomenclature from (British) merchant to (American) investment banking. This research considers one business practice that originated in America but has been widely adopted in London - quantitative finance methodologies. Specifically, this research analyses the role of American business schools' MBA programmes as intermediaries between the production of theoretical quantitative finance methodologies in US universities' economics departments and quantitative finance practice in London's corporate finance industry. A qualitative research strategy is being adopted, involving students, faculty and alumni from selected US business schools; corporate financiers and human resource managers in investment banks in London; and supporting evidence collected from institutions such as the Corporation of London and the Greater London Authority.

Project 47: Transnational Professional Service Corporations in Asian Pacific Rim Financial Centres (B)
Funded by: The Ron Lister Visiting Fellowship, The University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (2006)
Grant holder: Jon Beaverstock

The purpose of this fellowship is to undertake preliminary archival and research activities with transnational professional service corporations (investment banks, legal practices and headhunters) in Auckland, Hong Kong and Sydney's financial districts, as well as establishing collaborative ties with academic staff in the Department of Geography and the wider Social Sciences and Education Faculties, at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Project 46: The Globalization of the Executive Search Industry in Europe (B)
Funded by: ESRC (2006-2007)
Grant holders: Jon Beaverstock, Sarah Hall and James Faulconbridge (Geography, Lancaster University)
Research Associate: Andrew Hewitson

This project aims to seek knowledge and understanding of the contemporary globalization of the headhunting industry in Europe and its implications for new forms and geographies of executive search and selection. Theoretically, the project will extend and deepen existing knowledge and understanding of both the strategic and operational transnational capacities of knowledge-intensive professional services in a global, connected business environment, and role of headhunters as key ‘intermediaries' in the reproduction and management of executive labour recruitment in Europe's knowledge economy. Empirically, the project will identify the leading European headhunters and use time-series data to map their initial European internationalisation and recent globalization geographies, and from case study interviews with the leading firms and professional bodies based in London and several European cities, provide original insights into an understanding of firm strategy and their intermediary role in executive recruitment throughout Europe.
[Publications: RB 183, RB 194, RB 246, RB 247]

Project 45: Air Travel Transport as an Example of the Unfolding of the Globalization Process, 1970-2005 (A)
Funded by: Servicio de Investigación de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, “Acción Bolsas de Viaje Complutense” and by Project “Globalización y cultura: el proceso de reconstrucción territorial de México y estudios de caso en Yucatán”, director: Juan Córdoba Ordóñez
Grant holder and academic visitor: Cándida Gago García (Departamento de Análisis Geográfico Regional y Geografía Física, Facultad de Geografía e Historia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

The purpose of this project is to update existing airline data to 2005 to aid in understanding the unfolding geography of globalization during an academic residential visit to Loughborough University (April-June 2005).
[Publication: RB 209]

The research will build upon prior attempts to understand trans-metropolitan clusters by adding new data and theory to the literatures, and by developing a precise and defensible definition of Megapolitan Areas. The ultimate goal is for the US Census Bureau to formally adopt a Megapolitan designation.
[Media Coverage]

Project 43: How US Cities Plug into the World: Identifying and Measuring America's Multiple Global Links (B)
Funded by: The Brookings Institution
Grant holders: Rob Lang, Paul Knox and Peter Taylor
Research Assistant: To be appointed at the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech

This project continues our research into how US cities are responding to globalization by taking the investigation beyond economic networks.
[Media Coverage]

Tenure of the Francqui International Inter-university Chair enables the execution of a research programme that attempts to extend previous extensive GaWC research.
[Publication: Cities in Globalization]

The aim of this project is to understand the factors that have, and will in the future, lead to the success or failure of cities. This understanding should be a vital part of the property process.

This is a secondment to Loughborough University from the Production Engineering Programme at COPPE/UFRJ to explore the application of 'GaWC methodologies' to Brazilian cities.
[Publications: RB 147, RB 148, RB 175, RB 200]

Although various statistical analytical techniques have been applied to city-firm service values matrices, depictions of both input and output have not gone beyond simple city-grid cartograms. This project will explore how GIS and associated techniques can be employed to depict the world city network in new and innovative ways. There is no structured research agenda; a variety of depictions will be produced, compared and evaluated in terms of clarifying inter-city relations.
[Publication: New Atlases]

This project will deepen research on global city formation in Latin America by exploring links between offices of global service firms (as identified by GaWC) in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile and those companies, which drive export production in Mexico and Chile. 
[Publication: RB 156]

Using the qualitative methodology of the British Expatriates in Global Financial Centers project, this research will investigate the role of expatriate clubs/business associations in facilitating transnational networking within Singapore's financial district, and between Singapore and other international financial centres. Singapore has over ten expatriate clubs in the city-state, most of which have branches and affiliates in other financial centres, and several major business associations which represent the interests of foreign firms and highly-skilled labour in the city (e.g. British Association of Singapore).

Using the core methodology of the City of London project, this research will investigate the importance of clustering for firms in the broadcasting industry.
[Publications: RB 184, RB 185]

This involves collaborative research with researchers at Jones Lang LaSalle who are monitoring global urban change.

Using data collected by GaWC that defines the world city network as an interlocking set of global service centres, this project will carry out a comprehensive exploration of pattern and structure through using an array of complementary quantitative techniques.
[Publication: RB 196; RB 249]

This is a large project that studies policy implications of polycentricity in contemporary North West European city regions. There are teams studying eight 'Mega-City Regions": South East England, Delta Metropolis (Randstad), the Rhine-Main region, the Rhine-Ruhr region, greater Dublin, greater Paris, greater Zurich and greater Brussels. The Loughborough input will be the measure of connectivities within regions.
[Publications: The Polycentric Metropolis; Reflections on the Polycentric Metropolis; Globalization, City-Regions and Polycentricity in North-West Europe; Research Reports; RB 191; RB 199; RB 201; RB 220; RB 226; RB 228; RB 260]
[Media Coverage]

Building upon previous research on measuring the global connectivities of world cities (Project 10), the results are assessed for US metropolitan areas in order to select four 'lower-level' US cities for study. For each city, all extra city-region connections of advertising, banking/finance and law firms are found so as to provide an estimate of how important linkages are at different scales.
[Publication: Research Report]
[Media Coverage]

Using data derived from Project 10, inter-city relational matrices are available as input for basic network analyses. The software package UCINET is to be used to explore 'cliquishness' amongst world cities.
[Publication: RB 113]

This project applies methods previously employed to investigate the global connectivities of advanced producer service firms and NGOs to architectural and associated firms (civil engineering and realtors). It asks the question: how has globalization affected the spatial organization of firms behind contemporary production of the built environment in world cities.
[Publication: RB 128]
[Data: DS 15, DS 16]

This is a very basic scoping study in which we plan to develop a robust methodology for carrying out a city connections audit.

This is the British version of Project 27. Between them, these projects constitute an integrated programme of research that answers the following questions: Does citizenship matter in an era of globalization? With the rise of identity politics, do people think of themselves as citizens and as members of an inclusive political community or public? Do complex patterns of mobility and new technologies shape ideas of community and citizenship? Do they create new geographies of community and citizenship?

The intensification of transnational flows of people and the growing numbers of denizens, dual citizens, and non-citizens in many national contexts call into question the idea of the nation-state as a 'container' of citizenship. This suggests that identity and the experience of citizenship are not simply regulated by the country in which an individual holds legal citizenship. We argue that the issues of identity and the ways in which individuals understand citizenship and community membership have not been subject to sustained empirical analysis from the perspective of immigrants. The research proposed here intends to fill this void by focusing on immigrants who are involved with Arab-American and British-Arab organizations in six cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Washington DC, London and Sheffield.

A deeper integration into the world economy and post-Soviet liberal transformations are two combined tendencies in contemporary Russia. In its peculiar way globalization could be observed not only in Moscow, but also in other major cities of the country. Chelyabinsk, industrial agglomeration with approximately 1,5 million inhabitants, is taken as a vivid example. The main aims of this study include analysis of (i) Chelyabinsk's integration into transnational urban networks, (ii) external influences on leading sectors of the local economy and (iii) the city's own re-transmitting functions and economic influence on neighbouring territories.
[Publication: RB 90]

This is a pilot project on advertising as a producer service that emerged to facilitate the consumer modernity of American hegemony and has become a "leading industry" in the world-economy. The project explores different data sources to evaluate possibilities for compiling data to measure a global rate of profit to compare with earlier "leading industries".
[Publication: RB 195]

This is a small pilot project to see whether the methods employed to derive a world city network from the study of global business service firms can be transferred to the study of global NGOs. Will we be able to describe a spatial organization of global governance as a process of world city network formation?
[Publications: RB 119, RB 144, RB 149]
[Data: DS 17, DS 18, DS 19, DS 20]

This is a small project that is exploring the use of fuzzy classification techniques on the data produced by project 10.
[Publications: RB 75, RB 88, RB 97]

The aim of the study is to analyze the structural shifts initiated by the globalization and growth of business services in Moscow, and the city's changing role in national and international urban networks. Its idea is to develop a concept explaining the formation of business services' clusters in a post-socialist city, to reveal the real share of these activities in the economic structure of new Moscow, to examine the activity of international BS companies as compared to the domestic ones and to measure the social consequences of the international companies' presence in the city economy (exploring the new segments of the labour market, networks of new cultural industries etc).
[Publication: RB 114]

The project will investigate the sustainability and agglomeration economies of business clusters in the City of London involving the use of GIS to map firm clusters and qualitative methods to examine the 'softer' determinants of clustering in London's international financial centre.
[Publications: Corporation of London Report; Atlas of Economic Clusters in London; RB 124]
[Media Coverage]

This study is aimed at the cities that played key political roles as centres of government and headquarters of political institutions in Europe since the French Revolution. It picks up a concern of early political geographers with capital cities, widens the definition and relates it to the current debate on the state system, interprets the impact of political centrality in terms of culture (by framing reality and providing a meaningful aesthetic) and links it to the emerging field of globalization studies focused on cities.
[Publication: RB 91]

Building upon existing project data for 2000, data on corporate service office networks will be collected annually from 2001 to 2004 in order to analyse changes in the world city network formation over a five year period (i.e. 2000 to 2004).
[Publications: RB 77, RB 192, RB 203]

The University of Loughborough have been awarded a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship to enable John Rennie Short (Syracuse University) to contribute to the development of GaWC. The first objective is to develop a broader conception of the world city network for future projects. The second objective is to diffuse Short's pedagogic skills to GaWC and harness them in new curriculum development.
[Publications: RB 76, RB 93, RB 100]

Polycentric urban regions are becoming more a feature of the urban scene under conditions of contemporary globalization. This project tests the applicability of the polycentric concept to the urban core of the East Midlands region and investigates whether the urban zone around Derby, Leicester and Nottingham constitutes an emerging polycentric urban region.

Modelled on project 2, this research will use the 'GaWC 100' firms from project 10 to evaluate the global connectedness of Chicago as a global service centre. As well as aggregate analyses, sector analyses will be carried out for accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, insurance, law and management consultancy.

Empirical specification of the world city network creates a very complex set of data. The challenge is to create images of the data that make the operations of the network clear and understandable. Initial experiments using data from project 7 have employed schematic diagrams and cartograms but more sophisticated methods (animations?) will be employed with the new data from project 10.
[Publications: RB 30, RB 31, RB 33, RB 34]

Although Amsterdam is a well-researched city, this project focuses on what we do not know about the city, that is, its relations with other world cities. Using the "GaWC 100" firms from project 10, comparisons in global connectedness will be made with the other Randstadt cities: Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht.
[Publication: Research Report]

The purpose of this research is to begin to understand the role of Toronto in the global market for legal services.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the development of Singapore as an international financial centre through an investigation of the restructuring of the city-state's legal services.

The purpose of this study is to investigate what effect the establishment of the euro and the location of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt has had on the position of the latter city with respect to London. As world cities, both London and Frankfurt have numerous corporate service firms and this research will focus upon their activities as indicators of change.
[Publications: AGF Report; Conference Papers; RB 62, RB 84, RB 120; PB 3, PB 5]
[Media Coverage]

A product of project 7, this research will produce a large new data set of producer service office networks across world cities for the year 2000. Multivariate analyses will explore world city typologies and representations of globalization.
[Publications: RB 43, RB 48, RB 50, RB 55, RB 56, RB 58, RB 61, RB 77, RB 88, RB 89, RB 105, RB 112, RB 116, RB 143; PB 4; Atlas of Hinterworlds]
[Data: DS 11, DS 12]
[Media Coverage]

Using methods developed in projects 2 and 5, this research investigates whether the end of the Cold War and the advent of contemporary globalization have been instrumental in allowing Istanbul to recover its traditional east-west linking role with particular reference to the ex-USSR turkic-speaking republics.
[Publication: RB 14]

This is an exploratory project which uses the world city data produced in Project 7 to investigate regional patterns of world cities. The focus is on a 'Europe of cities' but Pacific Rim and North American city patterns are also investigated.
[Publications: RB 16, RB 21, RB 25, RB 35]
[Data: DS 8]

This is an exploratory project based upon the conversion of the London-orientated information collected in Project 2 into a general description of the world city network. Multivariate analyses of this unique data set are used to create typologies of world cities and new representations of globalization.
[Publications: RB 13, RB 17, RB 23, RB 30, RB 31]
[Data: DS 6, DS 7]

Advertising is a sector where New York excels as a world city. This study investigates: (i) the presence of New York's advertising agencies across the globe; (ii) the relations in this sector between advertising firms in New York, London and Tokyo; and, (iii) the reasons/strategies driving and guiding the expansion or globalization of advertising firms.

We intend to use the Asian financial crisis to reveal processes underlying world city development under circumstances of rapid, and sometimes hasty, change. In particular, we take advantage of this opportunity to investigate London and New York producer service firms in their practical and strategic reactions to the crisis in order to assess London's competitiveness in relation to its main world city rival.
[Publications: RB 18, RB 20, RB 21, RB 64, RB 81; PB 1]

This project aims to extend both our theoretical and empirical understandings of British expatriate transnational communities in global financial centres by investigating the ways in which the embedded cultural life experiences of expatriates posted in Singapore and New York City, accumulates and reproduces global-local knowledge in situ, and how such knowledge is then transferred and circulated within formal workplaces.
[Publications: RB 8, RB 22, RB 27, RB 42, RB 63, RB 108, RB 109, RB 139, RB 179; PB 2]

Using the internet, daily, all major features in the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal were surveyed over a period of five weeks recording all references to places in order to investigate London and New York, in terms of their relationship to each other, and other world cities.
[Publication: RB 2]

The main thrust in world city research has been comparative in nature to the detriment of our understanding of relations between cities. As a contribution to countering this, this project investigates the external influence of London as defined through the organisational connections of its advanced producer services with other cities.
[Publications: RB 3, RB 4, RB 5, RB 7, RB 9, RB 11]
[Data: DS 4, DS 5]
[Media Coverage]

Most data on social change is created by states and for states so that trans-state processes are inevitably neglected. As part of a university programme to promote interdisciplinary research, this project created and organised a web site devoted to trans-state data, hence its slogan: "Beyond State-istics".
[Publications: RB 1, RB 2, RB 6]

This project investigates the formal and informal knowledge networks that foster creativity across multiple scales in London's music industry. The research will in particular focus on how the cosmopolitan environment of London attracts creative talent and fosters the coming together of music industry actors in creative ‘episodes' in certain places and at certain times.

This project investigates the relations between the world cities of western Europe (especially the Low Countries) in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period and seeks to develop a theoretical framework for analysis that moves beyond central place theory.

This project investigates the changing nature of town twinning in Europe, with particular emphasis on twinning networks of UK and German towns and cities.

This project investigates the places and spaces in which contemporary visual art is created and negotiated, focusing on Paris as a prominent node in the art world.

This project investigates the connection between the internationalization of higher education and urban economic growth through a case study of return migration to Shanghai by Chinese business students who graduated at leading French universities in Paris.

This project critically examines how airspace, an economically important yet socially contested space of air traffic flows, is ordered, regulated and visualised by air traffic controllers and commercial airline pilots in order to geographically conceptualise how this space is produced and used.

This project examines the cultural economy of the UK music industry, with particular emphasis on the agglomeration economies/clustering of music industry companies in London.

This project investigates the relational geographies and spatial practices of knowledge creation in global advertising and law firms operating in London and New York. It examines the way space is constructed and given meaning through the various forms of social practice, interaction and mobility tied up with creating knowledge that makes professional service firms successful.

Winner, Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) Economic Geography Research Group Best PhD Dissertation Prize 2006

This project investigates the dearth of world cities in south Asia.

Using both Regulation Theory and World Systems Analysis, this research is theorizing the growth of consumer credit and commodity chains in the contemporary space economy, and in particular, focusing upon the activities of Experian (formally known as CCN), the largest domestic credit scoring agency, in facilitating uneven geographies of credit in the United Kingdom and Europe.