Assessing central places in a global age: on the networked localization strategies of advanced producer services

摘要

Most of the assumptions made in classic versions of central place-theory make these theories ill-suited to describe the spatial outline of a global urban hierarchy (i.e. a network of world cities). In this paper, a systematic overview of possible alterations to classic central place-theories is presented to advance understanding on how we might assert this emerging global hierarchy. Apart from the observation that new (global) levels of central places are needed, we discern three alterations. First, the informationalization of the global economy implies a whole gamut of new central place functions when compared to the industrial phase of a capitalist system. Second, emphasis is increasingly on city-city relations rather than city-hinterland relations, which requires a revision of the concept 'hinterland'. Third, hierarchical equivalence does no longer imply functional equivalence, i.e. there are processes of functional specialization between the central places of our global age. The totality of these observations implies that a different approach is required to assess, the localization strategies of service firms within the context of the world city-network.