Connecting Rhine-Main: The Production of Multi-Scalar Polycentricities through Knowledge-Intensive Business Services

Abstract

Most of the literature on polycentric urban regions has focused on the analysis of intra-regional structures rather than external linkages, while research on the emergence of a 'world city network' has analysed external city-relations without explicitly addressing city-regional contexts. This paper aims to bring both perspectives together. Drawing on Taylor’s interlocking network model, it presents a first analysis of multi-scalar inter-city connectivities within a specific city-regional context. Central to the analysis is the question how knowledge-intensive business service firms in Rhine-Main connect this multi-nodal metropolitan region to other cities within Germany and beyond. The result is a detailed mapping of the external business service connectivities of a major European city-region.