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Comparing functions of transnational city networks in Europe and Asia

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  • Stefan Niederhafner

Abstract

Transnational city networks (TCNs) are organisations that facilitate information exchange, cooperation and lobbying activities of cities from different countries—independent of the national level. This paper compares the aims and goals of European and Asian city networks, asking if there are significant differences between the two regions or if certain global patterns of urban international relations can be identified. The analytical concept draws on the literature on European TCNs and identifies specific functions they provide to their membership. By way of a comparative analysis, this concept is extended to the Asian TCN cases. It is shown that in both regions, cities cooperate independently across national borders, circumventing the nation-state. Furthermore, sustainable development with a strong focus on environmental issues, and in particular climate change policy, is the most important policy goal in both Europe and Asia. The TCNs show major differences, however, in the areas of representation of and lobbying on behalf of their memberships. This leads to the conclusions that cities emancipate themselves from the higher tiers of government and that the Westphalian nation state loses coherence in both Europe and Asia, even though to specific degrees. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Niederhafner, 2013. "Comparing functions of transnational city networks in Europe and Asia," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 377-396, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:asiaeu:v:11:y:2013:i:4:p:377-396
    DOI: 10.1007/s10308-013-0365-3
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    Cited by:

    1. Sascha Riedel, 2017. "The Problems of Assessing Transnational Mobility: Identifying Latent Groups of Immigrants in Germany Using Factor Mixture Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 271-290, March.
    2. Thomas Kalinowski, 2020. "Institutional Innovations and Their Challenges in the Green Climate Fund: Country Ownership, Civil Society Participation and Private Sector Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-13, October.
    3. Anders Blok & Robin Tschötschel, 2016. "World port cities as cosmopolitan risk community: Mapping urban climate policy experiments in Europe and East Asia," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(4), pages 717-736, June.

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