The mechanism analysis of the interactive development of producer services and clothing industry of world city Beijing

Unpacking the advanced producer services complex in world cities: Charting professional networks, localisation economies and markets

Urban Studies ◽

10.1177/0042098020908715 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 004209802090871

Author(s):

David Bassens ◽

Laura Gutierrez ◽

Reijer Hendrikse ◽

Deborah Lambert ◽

Maëlys Waiengnier

Keyword(s):

Financial Services ◽

Research Area ◽

World City ◽

Central Position ◽

Industrial Complex ◽

Producer Services ◽

World Cities ◽

City Formation ◽

Advanced Producer Services ◽

World City Networks

Limited empirical evidence in support of world-city formation has been the ‘dirty little secret’ of the eponymous research area. Since the late 1990s, inspired by Sassen’s account of The Global City, the field focused on advanced producer services (APS) firms as primary actors in world-city formation. While generating robust insights into the shifting geographies of world cities, empirical attention has mostly focused on mapping inter-urban world city networks formed by APS firms. Despite a rich literature on APS clusters, the degree to which specific intra-urban agglomerations and their inter-firm connections shape up has received little systematic attention. Based on a company survey in Brussels (Belgium), our study charts interactions between APS professionals to better understand the geographies, quality and intensity of their encounters. Our findings reveal that the Brussels-based APS cluster constitutes a hybrid of an industrial complex with stable formal ties and a social network based on informal exchange. Financial services assume a central position in what might be called ‘a para-financial services complex’, revealing close ties with legal services, accountancy and audit, and ICT. Geographically, we find that the APS complex depends on fine-grained localisation economies, which allow a small share of APS professionals to service both domestic and international clients. We conclude that APS actors in Brussels exhibit a strong domestic anchoring, indicative of the continued relevance of world cities as national financial centres amidst financial globalisation.

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The impact of a mega-event on city branding: The European Capital of Culture 2010 and the image of Istanbul

BORDER CROSSING ◽

10.33182/bc.v3i1.524 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 29-50 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Evinç Doğan ◽

Ibrahim Sirkeci

Keyword(s):

Visual Analysis ◽

Place Branding ◽

World City ◽

City Branding ◽

City Image ◽

European Capital Of Culture ◽

National Boundaries ◽

Symbolic Production ◽

The Impact ◽

The City

This study examines the ways in which the city image of Istanbul is re-created through the mega-events within the context of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2010. Istanbul “took the stage” as one of the three ECoC cities (Essen for the Ruhr in Germany and Pécs in Hungary), where the urban spaces were projected as the theatre décor while residents and visitors became the spectators of the events. Organisers and agents of the ECoC 2010 seemed to rebrand Istanbul as a “world city” rather than a “European capital”. With a series of transnational connotations, this can be considered as part of an attempt to turn Istanbul to a global city. In this study we examine posters used during the ECoC 2010 to see whether this was evident in the promoted images of Istanbul. The research employs a hermeneutic approach in which representations, signs and language are the means of symbolic meaning, which is analysed through qualitative methods for the visual data (Visual Analysis Methods), namely Semiotics and Discourse Analysis. The analysed research material comes from a sample of posters released during the ECoC 2010 to promote 549 events throughout the year. Using stratified random sampling we have drawn 28 posters (5% of the total) reflecting the thematic groups of events in the ECoC 2010. Particular attention is also paid to the reflexivity of the researchers and researchers’ embeddedness to the object of research. The symbolic production and visual representation are therefore investigated firstly through the authoritative and historically constituted discourses in the making of Istanbul image and secondly through the orders of cultural consumption and mediatisation of culture through spectacular events. Hence enforcing a transnationalisation of the image of the city where the image appears to be almost stateless transcending the national boundaries. Findings and methodology used in this study can be useful in understanding similar cases and further research into the processes of city and place branding and image relationships.

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