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Understanding the global ecosystem of city networks

Author

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  • Michele Acuto

    (University of Melbourne, Australia)

  • Benjamin Leffel

    (University of California Irvine, USA)

Abstract

Cities are formalising collaborations across borders at an unprecedented rate: ‘city networks’ now form a wide ecosystem of global partnerships between local authorities that is often underestimated. It might be time to think of city networks more explicitly as institutionalised and presenting a challenging form of more-than-local urban governance. To do so, our essay mixes a review of the overall global landscape (beyond the environmental sector where most of the literature is to be found), with both a network analysis of how these institutions work as a web of connections, as well as an ‘inside out’ view of how they are managed and what the challenges of that are. We do this by analysing a database of 202 of these networks, both statistically as well as via social network analysis. We find that: international initiatives are on the rise, but this context of partnerships has a well-established history, producing a wealth of information and outputs and offering a complex organisational landscape for cities to reach out beyond their local confines. We measure the relationship this has to the integration of cities into the global economy, the pathways it opens for further internationalisation of city leadership and the patterns of partnership with business and international organisations that it implies.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Acuto & Benjamin Leffel, 2021. "Understanding the global ecosystem of city networks," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(9), pages 1758-1774, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:9:p:1758-1774
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098020929261
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Adi Weidenfeld & Nick Clifton, 2023. "The Evolution of Transnational Knowledge Networks of Cities: Outlining a Future Research Agenda," Working Papers 2023-14, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw.
    2. Kazuhiro Asakawa & Jeremy Clegg, 2024. "The changing faces of global cities and firms: a new perspective on firms’ location strategy," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(1), pages 37-49, February.
    3. Jorn Koelemaij & Sam Taveirne & Ben Derudder, 2023. "An economic geography perspective on city diplomacy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(6), pages 995-1012, May.
    4. Katharine A. Robb & Michelle LaPointe & Kathryn Hemsing & Grant Anderson & James Anderson & Jorrit de Jong, 2023. "Inter‐city collaboration: Why and how cities work, learn and advocate together," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(5), pages 663-675, November.
    5. Wennmann, Achim, 2023. "Global Governance auf städtischer Ebene in Zeiten radikaler Ungewissheit," Global Governance Spotlight 3/2023, Stiftung Entwicklung und Frieden (SEF), Bonn.
    6. Catalina Ortiz & Gynna Millan, 2022. "CRITICAL URBAN PEDAGOGY: Convites as Sites of Southern Urbanism, Solidarity Construction and Urban Learning," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 822-844, September.
    7. Jorn Koelemaij & Ben Derudder, 2022. "City Diplomacy Beyond Metrocentricity: The Case of Flanders," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 113(5), pages 435-449, December.

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