Showing papers on "Polycentricity published in 2007"

Functional Polycentricity: A Formal Definition in Terms of Social Network Analysis:

Abstract: Polycentricity is often used descriptively with regard to a regional system of settlements, usually referred to as a polycentric urban region ( PUR). Although presented in much of the literature as in essence a morphological concept, polycentricity possesses a functional element that receives less attention. Polycentricity is also seen as a normative concept. However, it has not been rigorously defined using formal techniques. This paper argues that defining polycentricity in terms of both morphology and function is possible by drawing on techniques originating in social network analysis. The paper sets out a formal definition and derivation of functional polycentricity based on these techniques, which is then extended to a derivation of an index of regional functional polycentricity. The paper sets out worked examples to show how the techniques described might be utilised. The paper closes with a discussion of issues that may arise when putting these definitions into practice.

Sociolinguistics and discourse analysis : Orders of indexicality and polycentricity.

Abstract: Developments in the structure of societies, such as globalisation processes, compel us to devote more attention to issues of sociolinguistic variation in discourse, because features of such variation become ever more important to users. Yet a lot of discourse analysis starts from an old monolingual ideal, in which the sociolinguistic dimensions of the linguistic resources used by people remains underproblematised. This paper argues that our discourse analytic toolkit needs to be complemented with some seriously useful sociolinguistic tools and presents two such tools in this paper: orders of indexicality and polycentricity. Both concepts are designed to observe forms of linguistic and cultural variation that characterise Late Modern diasporic environments.

Structure and Cooptition in Urban Networks

Abstract: Over the past decades, demographic changes, advances in transportation and communication technology, and the growth of the services sector have had a significant impact on the spatial structure of regions. Monocentric cities are disappearing and developing into polycentric metropolitan areas, while at the same time, social economic processes are taking place at an ever larger geographical scale, beyond that of the city, in which historically separate metropolitan areas are becoming increasingly functionally connected to form polycentric urban regions. Such urban networks are characterised by the lack of an urban hierarchy, a significant degree of spatial integration between different cities and, complementary relationships between centres, in that cities and towns have different economic specialisations. The growing literature on changing urban systems coincides with the increasing popularity of the urban network concept in contemporary spatial planning and policy, in which urban networks are often seen as a panacea for regional economic development problems. Polycentricity and spatial integration have become catchphrases, where polycentric development policies have been introduced to support territorial cohesion as well as higher levels of territorial competitiveness. Despite the enthusiasm for the ideas of a polycentric and networked spatial organisation, the assessment of the network concept leaves much to be desired. To what extent are regions becoming more polycentric and spatially integrated? Are relationships between cities in polycentric, spatially integrated regions complementary rather than competitive? And are polycentric, spatially integrated regions more economically efficient than their monocentric, non-integrated counterparts? In this study, these questions will be addressed.

Intrametropolitan Employment Structure: Polycentricity, Scatteration, Dispersal and Chaos in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, 1996-2001

Abstract: There is little consensus on where and how employment is decentralising in metropolitan areas However, a number of key processes have been brought to light, and different cities have tended to display different processes: strong CBDs, suburban polynucleation, job dispersal, scattering, edgeless cities and perhaps 'keno capitalism' This paper explores the distribution and growth of employment at a fine spatial scale It is shown that, at this scale, there are very dynamic processes of growth and decline throughout metropolitan areas, but that these processes are organised at a wider scale by stable employment centres and by links between these centres The structures and processes thus revealed suggest that the spatial economy of metropolitan areas should be approached as a chaotic system From an empirical perspective, this means that, depending on the scale of analysis and the way data are considered, polynucleation, dispersal and chaos are all observed: this may partly explain the lack of consensus in

Closing the Gap: Territorial Cohesion through Polycentric Development

Abstract: This article discusses and analyses national polycentric development policies aiming at cohesion. Due to its insertion in the 1999 European Spatial Development Perspective ‘polycentricity’ has become an important concept in discussions on Europe’s territorial and economic development. Its content remains however rather unclear. This paper contributes to the discussion on the meaning of polycentricity by looking at national polycentric development policies. These policies can be distinguished according to two types of disparities, or gaps, which they try to bridge. The first concerns the gap between different levels of the national urban hierarchy, the most common being the gap between a primate capital city and the next category of cities. The second gap is the one between cities located in regions with diverging rates of socio-economic development. On the basis of a conceptual and quantitative discussion of these gaps a basic definition is presented of what polycentric development policies are about: policies that address the distribution of economic and/or economically relevant functions over the urban system in such a way that the urban hierarchy is flattened in a territorially balanced way. A discussion of the polycentric development policies of France, Poland and Germany illustrates our findings. The article concludes that for the period 2007-2013 – the new EU budget period – a clear synergy is needed between EU and national policies and that without such synergy policies cannot be effective.

The Pervasiveness of Polycentricity

Abstract: Lon Fuller's claim that polycentric disputes are unsuitable for adjudication has had a powerful impact on the English law of justiciability. Fuller conceded, as many have noted, that polycentricity is a matter of degree and that counter-examples can be admitted without collapsing the concept. But this article suggests that not only do counter-examples exist, but that the law is rife with them, and that the existence of such examples forces us to refine or reject Fuller's doctrine. The issue is important because the argument that polycentric issues are non-justiciable is most frequently raised in the context of resource allocation disputes. Such disputes frequently involve claims to health, education, social security or housing resources. As such, they often concern internationally recognised human rights claims of the highest order. But many say that social rights should not be legal rights because they would require judges to adjudicate polycentric disputes. This article suggests we need to reconsider this objection. It shows how polycentricity is a pervasive feature of adjudication, discussing a number of examples but choosing to focus principally on an area that is infrequently discussed in public law - the law of taxation. It is shown that tax law is heavily polycentric but that there is an accepted role for courts in protecting citizens against the spectre of unfettered public power. Demonstrating the pervasiveness of polycentricity does not alone make the case for rejecting the wisdom of Fuller's doctrine, a good deal of which appears sound. But it helps illuminate both how the concept is invoked selectively, and how it cannot without further refinement be relied upon to justify judicial restraint.

Polycentricity in transnational planning initiatives: ESDP applied or ESDP reinvented?

Abstract: Polycentric development has been an important issue at the metropolitan scale (e.g. Albrechts, 1998; Priemus, 1998; Hall & Pain, 2006) and in national planning strategies (Meijers et al., 2005). It...

The Science Park and the Governance Challenge of the Movement of the High-Tech Urban Region towards Polycentricity: The Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park

Abstract: In this paper I explore the governance challenges of science-park-based urban regions by exploring the case study of the Hsinchu science-based industrial park in Taiwan. In contrast to the economic emphasis of new regionalism on regional learning, I investigate the change and development of the high-tech Hsinchu region as it moves towards polycentricity, by exploring how the political processes of multiple and interconnected forces, from international to national and subnational levels, affect spatial-construction and regional governance issues. With reference to the analytical tool of the polycentric urban region (PUR), I highlight that international, national, and subnational forces caused the polycentric development, which in turn has led to governance contradictions and has politically affected the implementations of an ideal mode of the PUR.

Functional polycentricity in the Mega-City Region of Munich

Abstract: Mega-City Regions are nodes in the network of information flows and therefore important locations of the knowledge based economy (KBE). This new spatial scale is recognized by planners and politicians as being crucial to develop competitive national economies. In this paper we want to examine the spatial patterns and firm connectivities of the KBE in the Mega-City Region of Munich. We test the hypothesis whether (1) High-Tech-Branches and Advanced-Producer Services (APS) have different location strategies and (2) whether the firm connectivities and the role of the surrounding functional urban areas are different from those of the core city of Munich. In order to deal with both hypotheses we combine a quantitative value-chain approach with the method of the Global and World City Study Group (GaWC) to analyse inter-firm as well as intra-firm networks. We hypothesise that APS branches follow a different location strategy to ensure proximity with their customers then high-tech branches. The latter are more capital-intensive and their location patterns and strategies are in general more path-dependent. Our study shows indications for a division of labour among functional urban areas within the Mega-City Region of Munich. It seems that Munich plays the role of the international knowledge hub whereas the other functional urban areas are contributing in various ways to the distinctive character of the Mega-City Region of Munich.

Concept of new regionalism in the spatial development strategy for greater london

Abstract: This paper first gives a brief review on the evolvement of the regionalism in the UK, and then identifies and interprets the new regionalism ideas in the Spatial Development Strategy for Greater Lon- don of 2004, which is the spatial network paradigm determining fuzzy boundaries and polycentricity, equal connection promoting social inclusion or new regional balance, as well as restraint bottom-up part- nership shaping regional morphology, finally, it gives a question whether new regionalism pursue a new regional balance.

Gateways And Corridors In Globalisation: Planning Sustainable Infrastructures For Transcontinental 'Spaces Of Flows'

Abstract: Major changes in the global economy have become a dominant theme for governments worldwide. Post-industrial informationalisation of economic activity and the shift from manufacturing to advanced knowledge-based services pose significant challenges for 21 century territorial policy and planning. Transcontinental trade flows and new forms of commercial production have caused a major shift in local-global economic relations with significant implications for traditional ‘gateway cities’ and ‘corridors’ (Burghardt, 1971; Whebell, 1969). Recently completed research into how these changes are impacting on North West Europe INTERREG IIIB ‘POLYNET: Sustainable Management of European Polycentric Mega-City Regions’ predicts key dilemmas for policy as forces of globalization extend and deepen (Hall and Pain, 2006). This paper outlines the detailed findings from this research and considers the implications for Canada. INTRODUCTION: RESEARCHING GATEWAYS AND CORRIDORS IN GLOBALIZATION Advances in electronic information and communication technologies have been widely seen as heralding the increasing detachment of production and trade flows from what has been termed by Manuel Castells (1996, 2000) the ‘space of places’. In the first volume of his seminal 1996 trilogy, ‘The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture: The Rise of the Network Society’, Castells put forward the theory that, in a new ‘informational economy’, the rise of the ‘network organisation’ would cause the emergent ‘space of flows’ to dominate established politico-territorial spaces that are defined by jurisdictional and administrative boundaries. Castells’ work drew attention for the first time, to the increasing importance of the cross-border informational relationships between cities and their implications for governance. Whereas systems of governance remain strongly attached to territorially bounded places, new economy city production processes are shaped by transcontinental, networked spaces of flows. For ten years, the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Study Group at Loughborough University has specialised in studying the ‘new economy’ business relationships between cities associated with these contemporary processes of GATEWAYS AND CORRIDORS IN GLOBALIZATION 2 globalization (Beaverstock et al, 2000). This research focuses specifically on the activities of new economy gateway and corridor users – knowledge-intensive ‘advanced producer services’ (APS) first recognised by economist Saskia Sassen (1991; 1994) as dominant new industrial functions based in major ‘global cities’ which increasingly govern worldwide knowledge production and trade flows. GaWC analysis of large-scale data sets on the servicing strategies of APS firms – the locations of their city-based offices and their advanced business functions worldwide – allows the ‘global connectivity’ between cities to be measured and mapped schematically (Taylor, 1997; 2001a). In addition to quantitative analysis, indepth face-to-face interview studies with the senior decision-makers of president, vice-president, chairman and similar status in global business networks, provide vital insights into the business relationships and interactions between cities that underlie these network structures. Of relevance for the consideration of policy on gateways and corridors, the GaWC methodology informs spatial policy on the emerging worldwide geographies of informational gateway cities and the virtual corridors that inter-link them. Its research thus reflects the dramatic changes in the scale of ‘city hinterlands’ associated with major technological and business developments. Whereas Christaller’s (1933) original hinterland concept related to a relatively local scale of economic relationships prevailing in the pre-globalization era, GaWC analysis depicts what Taylor (2001b) has termed the new economy ‘hinterworlds of cities’, reflecting their increasingly stretched economic relations (Cochrane and Pain, 2000; Taylor and Walker, 2004; see also Pain, 2008, in this volume). Application of the methodology in the North West Europe interregional POLYNET research has shed important light on the impacts of globalization in Europe and the implications for policy and planning. GATEWAYS AND CORRIDORS EUROPEAN POLICY POLYNET has investigated advanced service economy ‘informational flows’, seen as vitally important for ‘Lisbon Agenda’ goals (EC, 2000) to promote Europe’s growth and competitiveness in the global economy, in eight densely urbanised North West European regions each consisting of a number of towns and cities: ‘South East England’, ‘Paris Region’, ‘Central Belgium’, ‘the Randstad’, ‘Rhine Main’, ‘RhineRuhr’, ‘Greater Dublin’, and ‘Northern Switzerland’. The research has been supported by INTERREG IIIB European Regional Development Funds with strict policy priorities in mind. These derive from key spatial strategy documents the European Spatial Development Strategy (ESDP, EC 1999) and the North West Metropolitan Area Spatial Vision (NWMA, 2000) which set the framework for Member State metropolitan and regional policy. These documents are non-statutory but, linked to major Structural Funds investment, they are highly instrumental in shaping European planning. Their strategic aim is to create a more ‘polycentric’ or balanced distribution of urban and economic development across cities and regions in Europe and also between its economic ‘core’ area, which includes North West Europe, and ‘peripheral’ EU regions. Urban spatial polycentricity is purported to provide the means of achieving three fundamental policy goals – the enhancement of Europe’s competitiveness in the global knowledge economy, the promotion of sustainable development and