A global 'urban roller coaster'? Connectivity changes in the World City Network, 2000-04

Abstract

A network model is used to assess the nature of change in inter-city relations from 2000 to 2004. Data are collected for 2004 on the office networks of the same global service firms that were used to describe global connectivities for 315 cities in 2000. This allows a new cross-sectional geography of connectivities to be produced for 2004, and for changes in connectivities between 2000 and 2001 to be computed. Simple visualualisation and statistical techniques are used to explore the data. A distinction is made between 'normal change' and 'exceptional change' and only two cases of the latter are definitely identified: cities in both USA and sub-Saharan Africa are generally losing global connectivity in relation to the rest of the world. Thus 'normal change' predominates and we conclude that contemporary inter-city change does not correspond to Castells' image of an 'urban roller coaster'.