IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v50y2013i8p1641-1647.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring Centrality and Power Recursively in the World City Network: A Reply to Neal

Author

Listed:
  • John P. Boyd
  • Matthew C. Mahutga
  • David A. Smith

Abstract

In a recent article, Zachary Neal (2011) distinguishes between centrality and power in world city networks and proposes two measures of recursive power and centrality. His effort to clarify oversimplistic interpretations of relational measures of power and position in world city networks is appreciated. However, Neal’s effort to innovate methodologically is based on theoretical reasoning that is dubious when applied to world city networks. And his attempt to develop new measures is flawed since he conflates ‘eigenvector centrality’ with ‘beta centrality’ and then argues that ‘eigenvector-based approaches’ to recursive power and centrality are ill-suited to world city networks. The main problem is that his measures of ‘recursive’ centrality and power are not recursive at all and thus are of very limited utility. It is concluded that established eigenvector centrality measures used in past research (which Neal critiques) provide more useful gauges of power and centrality in world city networks than his new indexes.

Suggested Citation

  • John P. Boyd & Matthew C. Mahutga & David A. Smith, 2013. "Measuring Centrality and Power Recursively in the World City Network: A Reply to Neal," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(8), pages 1641-1647, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:8:p:1641-1647
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098012466599
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098012466599
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098012466599?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Friedmann, 1986. "The World City Hypothesis," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 69-83, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kao, Ta-Wei (Daniel) & Simpson, N.C. & Shao, Benjamin B.M. & Lin, Winston T., 2017. "Relating supply network structure to productive efficiency: A multi-stage empirical investigation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 259(2), pages 469-485.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anthony Goerzen & Christian Geisler Asmussen & Bo Bernhard Nielsen, 2024. "Global cities, the liability of foreignness, and theory on place and space in international business," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(1), pages 10-27, February.
    2. György Csomós & Géza Tóth, 2016. "Modelling the shifting command and control function of cities through a gravity model based bidimensional regression analysis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(4), pages 613-615, April.
    3. Yin-wah Chu, 2008. "Deconstructing the Global City: Unravelling the Linkages that Underlie Hong Kong's World City Status," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(8), pages 1625-1646, July.
    4. Jeroen van der Waal, 2012. "Post-industrialisation, Immigration and Unemployment: How and Why the Impact of Immigration on Unemployment Differs between Dutch Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(8), pages 1711-1724, June.
    5. Wang, Huanming & Ran, Bing, 2022. "How business-related governance strategies impact paths towards the formation of global cities? An institutional embeddedness perspective," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    6. Renato A. Orozco Pereira & Ben Derudder, 2010. "Determinants of Dynamics in the World City Network, 2000-2004," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(9), pages 1949-1967, August.
    7. Piotr Raźniak & György Csomós & Sławomir Dorocki & Anna Winiarczyk-Raźniak, 2021. "Exploring the Shifting Geographical Pattern of the Global Command-and-Control Function of Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-15, November.
    8. O'Connor, Kevin & Fuellhart, Kurt, 2013. "Change in air services at second rank cities," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 26-30.
    9. Virag Molnar, 2010. "The Cultural Production of Locality: Reclaiming the ‘European City’ in Post‐Wall Berlin," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 281-309, June.
    10. Xu Zhang, 2018. "Multiple creators of knowledge-intensive service networks: A case study of the Pearl River Delta city-region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(9), pages 2000-2019, July.
    11. Belderbos, René & Du, Helen S. & Slangen, Arjen, 2020. "When do firms choose global cities as foreign investment locations within countries? The roles of contextual distance, knowledge intensity, and target-country experience," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(1).
    12. Zwiers, Merle & Kleinhans, Reinout & van Ham, Maarten, 2015. "Divided Cities: Increasing Socio-Spatial Polarization within Large Cities in the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 8882, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Aurélie LALANNE & Guillaume POUYANNE, 2012. "Ten years of metropolization in economics: a bibliometric approach (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2012-11, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    14. Chakravarty, Dwarka & Goerzen, Anthony & Musteen, Martina & Ahsan, Mujtaba, 2021. "Global cities: A multi-disciplinary review and research agenda," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).
    15. Walter J. Nicholls, 2011. "The Los Angeles School: Difference, Politics, City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 189-206, January.
    16. Christof Parnreiter, 2014. "Network or Hierarchical Relations? A Plea for Redirecting Attention to the Control Functions of Global Cities," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(4), pages 398-411, September.
    17. Zachary Neal, 2011. "Differentiating Centrality and Power in the World City Network," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(13), pages 2733-2748, October.
    18. Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp & Mark D. Partridge & Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp, 2013. "In praise of megacities in a global world," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 167-182, June.
    19. Xingjian Liu & Ben Derudder & Frank Witlox & Michael Hoyler, 2014. "Cities As Networks within Networks of Cities: The Evolution of the City/Firm-Duality in the World City Network, 2000–2010," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(4), pages 465-482, September.
    20. Wouter Jacobs, 2014. "Rotterdam and Amsterdam as Trading Places? In Search of the Economic-Geographical Nexus between Global Commodity Chains and World Cities," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(4), pages 483-491, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:50:y:2013:i:8:p:1641-1647. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.