Contrasts between first-tier and second-tier cities in Europe: a functional perspective

Second-tier cities have been experiencing renewed interest within policy and research contexts, which is reversing a tradition of relative neglect due to the long-standing focus on large cities and capitals. This paper compares European second-tier and first-tier cities with regard to the presence of urban functions and how these are spread over their urban regions. The analysis shows the existence of a substantial ‘first city bonus’: a surplus of urban functions in first-tier cities which cannot be explained by their size or network embeddedness. We also show that second-tier cities are better served with urban functions in the absence of a dominant capital. In first-tier urban regions, the core municipality exploits the critical mass of the urban region to support its own functions, leaving that region functionally underserved. Second-tier cities lack this absorptive capacity, and their urban regions are endowed with more urban functions. These functional differences mean that second-tier cities demand a differentiated research and policy approach, in which city-regional integration becomes an important territorial development strategy. Rather than the dispersion process in first-tier cities leading to a ‘regionalization of the city’, integration in second-tier urban regions may be seen as a process of ‘citification of the region’.     

The changing system of European cities and regions

This paper analyses the current structure of the system of European cities and regions, relations within the system and how it is changing. Cluster analysis distinguished eight regional types: metropolitan, semi‐peripheral and peripheral service regions; central, semi‐peripheral, peripheral and collapsed industrial regions; and agricultural regions. The core of European industrial societies proves to be almost identical with the city belt that dominated economic development in pre‐industrial Europe. Two possible paths of change are discussed: delocalization of simpler, labour cost‐intensive activities towards the periphery (delocalization hypothesis), or structural changes in industrial core regions and persisting marginal status in the periphery (restructuring hypothesis). Neither hypothesis could be confirmed or rejected unequivocally: there were indicators for the continuing importance of urban service centres but no peripheral industrialization for the continuing dominance of industrial core regions while undergoing structural changes. It is concluded that there are hardly any signs of convergence between core and peripheral regions.     

Territorial development,planning reform and urban governance: the case of Ireland’s second-tier cities

The increased emphasis within Europe on the role of second-tier cities has implications for the ways in which these urban centres are considered within national spatial planning strategies. In centralized, monocentric states such as Ireland, there has been a general ambivalence towards urban policy for cities outside the capital city, and historically, this has prevented the development of a strong, diversified urban hierarchy undermining prospects for balanced regional development. This paper examines the extent to which a new found emphasis on Ireland’s second-tier cities which emerged in the ‘Gateways’ policy of the National Spatial Strategy was matched by subsequent political and administrative commitment to facilitate the development of these urban centres. Following a discussion of the position of second-tier cities in an international context and a brief overview of recent demographic and economic trends, the paper assesses the relative performance of Ireland’s second-tier cities in influencing development trends, highlighting a comprehensive failure to deliver compact urban growth. In this context, the paper then discusses the implications of current development plans for the second-tier cities and proposals for Irish local government reform for securing compact urban development.     

长江三角洲地区城镇空间组织模式的结构与特征

本文基于产业结构升级与城镇空间组织模式协同的视角,运用主成分和聚类分析方法,对长江三角洲地区城镇空间组织模式的结构与特征进行了探讨,以此为长三角城市群规划编制提供科学依据。本文认为:①长三角城市群实际上涵盖了7大都市圈,各都市圈之间的边界存在有许多重叠的部分;②根据上述结果与断裂点分析,城镇空间组织模式的结构实际上是由5大不同等级、不同范围、相互交叉、大圈套小圈、圈圈相扣的都市圈所构成的"多元圈层"结构,并由核心区内圈向外呈分指状发散性分布,核-缘拓展的特征比较明显。     

The Emergence of Inter-Municipal Collaboration: Evidence from Metropolitan Planning in Portugal

Inter-organizational collaboration as a means for policy coordination has come to be seen as a solution to difficult and complex urban challenges. In Portugal, where metropolitan governance structures are highly fragmented, critics highlight the need for better coordination between municipalities—a situation typical in many countries. We seek to understand the forces behind the emergence of inter-municipal collaboration around land use and mobility issues, using a case study method. Based on nine cases from Portugal's two largest metropolitan areas, we test a model of inter-municipal collaboration, attempting to identify the factors and conditions which contribute to the emergence of collaborative relationships. The analysis suggests several points of validation as well as propositions for extending and refining the model. We find that collaboration is facilitated by a combination of positive incentives, ambiguity and flexibility in the institutional system, an external catalyst, existing inter-organizational networks, and specific organizational characteristics. The existence of any one of these factors is not enough. A combination of several factors, possible but apparently uncommon in Portugal, is necessary. This research suggests that the Portuguese planning system may be most likely to achieve metropolitan policy coordination through a metropolitan association that can incentivize collaborative projects.     

The Role of Government Policies and Strategies Behind the Shrinking Urban Core in an Expanding City Region: The Case of Izmir

Over the last few decades, the term urban shrinkage has come to be accepted as a valid concept in international academic circles, and has gradually gained importance, with its causes the subject of well-documented discussion. While previous discussions of urban shrinkage have directed attention to cities shrinking as a whole, recent research started to recognize the case of shrinkage in growing cities and regions. As such, recent discussions of urban shrinkage indicate that patterns of shrinkage vary considerably from city to city, and from sub-region to sub-region, with the importance of local dynamics in responding to changing economic pressures given much consideration. Recent studies have tended to disregard the role of government policies and strategies put in place to facilitate the adaptation of the urban economies to the new conditions. Taking Izmir as an example, being a fast-growing metropolitan region in Turkey, this paper presents evidence of government policies and strategies aimed at enhancing the development of peripheral areas that have led to shrinkage of the metropolitan core. This paper focuses on this experience and discusses its implications.     

全球化视角下的世界城市网络理论

城市诞生时就相互保持着联系,只有将城市纳入世界城市网络中才能正确把握城市产生和发展的本质。1980年以来在第三次全球化浪潮的背景下,世界生产要素和产品市场开始整合,世界城市的兴起是国际劳动分工在空间上的表达。Cohen、Friedmann、Sassen、Castells和Taylor等学者提出并发展了世界城市理论,世界城市网络理论已经成为研究城市问题的重要框架。联系数据的缺乏长期制约了世界城市网络的实证研究,二十世纪九十年代中期以来学者们创新性地解决了方法论的问题,对世界城市网络的各个层面进行了实证研究。     

振兴东北构建哈大都市经济带的作用与对策

东北老工业基地振兴的关键是经济转型和城市重建,本文在分析目前东北振兴发展的国内外经济形势的基础上,依据区域经济发展相关理论,对东北区域经济与城市系统进行辨识,提出了按照产业集聚与大都市圈空间重组的城市化机制与模式,引导东北区域经济结构调整和城市重建,即沿经济基础雄厚的以重化工业为主的哈尔滨-长春-沈阳-大连交通干线及其腹地,通过建设"门户城市",发挥大城市的集聚功能,增强中心城市的实力,发挥"以点带面"的作用,带动周边地区的发展;借鉴国际经验,运用财政税收政策,促进中小企业、民营企业的发展;通过基础创新和模仿创新,掌握核心技术,推动产业开发,产品优化,工艺提升,营销、运输和服务的变革,加速企业经营现代化的进程;依托区域科技优势,实现地区知识资源的优化配置,促进高新技术产业的发展,达到高新技术产业与传统产业的融和,构建东北哈大都市经济带,促进东北老工业基地全面发展的建议。     

Regional Polycentrism in a Mountainous Territory: The Case of Covilhã (Portugal) and Alpine Cities

The Portuguese mountain city of Covilhã possesses a singular industrial tradition. Today, many of the urban interventions undertaken result in an urban space and landscape disconnected from the mountains. Alpine mountain cities emerge as emblematic, given the representativeness the Alps assume within the context of European mountains. In the Alpine region, the polycentric system of cities condenses the characteristics associated with the topographical particularities and singular types of inter-municipal and cross-border relationships, where the economic changes and regional policies can be observed with greater clarity due to their specificity. In general terms, the quality of life, based on the landscape values, the identification of the citizens with their territory, and on the territorial planning at different scales, emerges as being linked to the construction of a brand identity based on sustainable urban development. It is in this sphere that the study of Alpine cases can inspire good practices to be applied in the Portuguese territory of the Beira Interior, namely in the medium-sized cities and in the synergies between them and the natural spaces. Thus Covilhã finds itself in an advantageous position to use its situation to construct a city brand in harmony with the mountain territory.     

Concentrated Urban Poverty: The Case of Izmir Inner Area,Turkey

In Turkey, poverty has been a main subject of debates since 1960s. It used to be a serious problem for both rural areas and the big cities that gained migration. In Turkey and world-wide since the 1980s, however, there have been more research interests in the concentrated urban poverty, especially along with the increase in levels of impoverishment around the world. With the help of a case study in Izmir (Turkey), this paper aims to examine the process of concentrated urban poverty from different points of view in the literature. This is a case study developed at the peripheries of the traditional city centre—or inner areas—of the city of Izmir, Turkey. The paper, first, discusses the parameters of concentrated poverty according to the literature. Then it introduces the study findings of the author, which point out the macro-scale, micro-scale and ecological dynamics that are important in the development of concentrated urban poverty. The macro-scale dynamics suggest that poverty in inner areas of the city are related to the unbalanced development trends within the country, such as the overgrowth of metropolitan cities, economic restructuring processes, migration trends and the development of informal economy. The ecological dynamics address to the housing and job location preferences and invasion-succession processes in the city, which emphasize that socio-economic characteristics of inner areas of the city are different from those of other city parts. Micro-scale dynamics are related to poors' ability of developing solidarity relations among themselves, which is also related to the spatial characteristics of inner areas of the city, according to this study's findings.     

City branding in polycentric urban regions: identification,profiling and transformation in the Randstad and Rhine-Ruhr

In polycentric urban regions several distinct cities, none of which is dominant, cooperate and compete with each other to attract inhabitants and firms. In such settings city branding strategies do not solely affect one city, but the entire region. We examined how city branding in the face of ecological modernization, that is, delivering higher added economic value, while lowering environmental impacts, is playing out in the Dutch Randstad and the German Rhine-Ruhr. Our findings show that regional identity formation occurs at the sub-polycentric urban region level, coinciding more with (historical) economic profiles than with planning imaginaries. The Dutch cities profile themselves more along the lines of ecological modernization than their German counterparts. Differences between subregions within each polycentric urban region are also noticeable, where more industrialized regions, such as the Ruhr or southern Randstad focus on ‘green’, ‘liveable’ and ‘knowledge-oriented’, while cities with stronger knowledge-intensive sectors portray themselves as ‘smart’ or ‘sustainable’. Cities generally substantiate their profiles through projects, but a significant gap persists between reality and aspirations for improved environmental conditions. This is especially true for the Dutch cities, where many claims, but little visible action can be observed.     

吉林省城市体系等级规模结构研究

等级规模结构是城市体系的三大结构之一,其特征可以反映出城市在不同规模层次中的分布状况及城市人口集中或分散的程度,有助于认识城市体系发展所处的阶段。通过统计数据计算分析,运用分形理论,发现吉林省城市体系等级规模结构满足位序-规模分布规律,城市规模分布的均衡程度较高,中小城市比较发育,首位城市垄断作用不突出,缺乏大城市。在吉林省城市体系动态变化过程中,等级规模结构相对稳定且不断趋于集中。在此基础上提出重点培育通化、延吉等大城市;继续扩大长春规模,发挥整体效益;加强交通网络建设;加快矿业城市可持续发展等建议。     

乌鲁木齐都市圈整合及其发展趋势研究

都市圈整合是在新形势下加强区域合作与协调,发挥都市圈整体竞争力的有效途径。随着西部大开发的深入,有效整合乌鲁木齐都市圈对新疆和西部地区经济的发展也是至关重要的。文章通过对乌鲁木齐都市圈整合的必要性的分析,提出了通过观念、产业、行政区划等具体整合措施,消除都市圈目前发展中的主要障碍,更好的促进乌鲁木齐都市圈的发展。文章的最后,结合现实状况指出了乌鲁木齐和昌吉将率先实现一体化发展,经济区将逐步形成以及圈内基础设施将日益完善等主要发展趋势。     

温州大都市区形成机制及其空间结构研究

大都市区是发达的城市化区域,它包括城市核心区和与之在经济、社会、文化上有紧密联系的地区。21世纪到来之际,大都市区发生了巨大的变化。大都市区,无论是走向繁荣还是衰退,都面临着经济发展、基础设施建设、环境保护、社会平等发展战略问题。本文以温州为例,在对区域经济发展水平差异和客流、物流分析的基础上,界定了温州大都市区范围;通过对温州大都市区的研究认为,宏观政策机制、市场机制、工业化模式、温州人精神和温州社会网络是温州大都市区形成的重要动力源泉;最后,作者以上述研究为依据,提出了近期和远期温州大都市区空间结构设想。     

LOCAL PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONIZATION: TRENDS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

In this article, some of the important structural changes occurring in local government today which are likely to have a direct impact on labor relations for municipal and county governments are reviewed. These include fiscal, managerial and socio-economic changes. The implication of these changes for such factors as multilateral bargaining, union growth, contracting out, inter-municipal labor cooperation, legitimacy for public employee unionization, popular support, and changes in the legal status of organized municipal employees are examined. Finally, the overall impact of these trends on work stoppages, disruption of city services, etc. is discussed.     

基于居民出行大数据的我国都市圈识别及其分布格局

都市圈是大城市发展到一定阶段的产物,当前都市圈空间范围界定还存在争议,本文梳理了都市圈的概念和内涵,采用手机信令出行数据识别了全国都市圈的空间分布格局。分析发现,我国大部分都市圈仍处于发育阶段,当出行率阈值为 1% 时全国识别出 27个都市圈。都市圈的分布格局与经济发展水平密切相关,经济发达地区的都市圈数量多、分布密集,如东部沿海和城市群地区。中心城市的人口和经济规模,以及圈域出行距离影响了都市圈的空间范围和圈内联系程度,圈域出行规模与中心城市人口规模呈正相关,外围城市向中心城市的出行率与中心城市经济首位度呈正相关,且符合距离衰减规律。     

Success Conditions for Urban Networks: Eurocities and Sister Cities

The present paper investigates the role of urban networks in interaction and integration of cities by means of the “sister city” movement. The paper addresses the relationships of “Eurocities” with their “sister cities” to highlight the main factors behind the successful relationships. The data and information used for evaluation are based on the extensive survey questionnaires filled out by relevant departments or experts of municipalities in Eurocities. A logistic regression method is deployed to identify the most important factors in the success of sister city relationships. The results of our study show that the existence of any former relation with the sister cities affects the success of the relationship positively. This former relation makes it easier to have a future relation with an economic partnership while shortening the process and accelerating the economic partnership. The results also show that two factors, viz. similarities in urban problems and contributions of Eurocities to their sister cities stimulate the willingness of Eurocities to improve the relationship. The contributions as well as economic benefits provided from the sister city relationship and new business and investment opportunities have emerged as the most important factors in sister city relationship.     

The boundaries of suburban discontent? Urban definitions and neighbourhood political effects

Residents of city and suburban neighbourhoods have diverged in the way they vote, with inner-city dwellers preferring political parties on the left while suburbanites increasingly vote for parties on the right. Yet it is not clear whether such a division is more evident between residents of central and suburban municipalities (the jurisdictional hypothesis), or between residents of neighbourhoods differentiated by urban form and, by assumption, lifestyle (the morphological hypothesis). While there are clear reasons for the predominant reliance on municipal differences in research based in the U.S. and other countries, it is not evident that these reasons apply in the Canadian context. This article examines how urban boundaries articulate electoral differences between metropolitan residents in Canada's three largest urban regions, using aggregate election data for federal elections between 1945 and 2000, survey data from the 2000 Canada election study and a series of indices developed by the author. It is found that while trends towards city–suburban polarization are similar regardless of the boundaries used to define the zones, in the Canadian case the results are stronger and more significant when boundaries based on urban form (between pre-and post-war development) are employed. The implications of these results for the relationship between urban space and political values in Canadian cities are then discussed.     

东部地区流动人口城市融入的比较研究

以东部地区城市特色比较明显的6个城市的问卷调查为基础,结合中国的实际情况构建了衡量流动人口城市融入的指标体系,通过主成分分析对6个城市流动人口的城市融入程度进行了比较。研究发现6个城市流动人口融入程度存在着明显的差异,环渤海的青岛和沈阳流动人口的城市融入程度最高,而珠江三角洲地区的东莞和长三角的温州流动人口的城市融入程度最低,介于两者之间的是长江三角洲地区的无锡和京津冀地区的北京。总体而言,北方城市流动人口的融入程度总体上要高于南方城市。流动人口城市融入程度的差异反映了城市特色或性质的不同。城市规模、城市所在区域的文化特色、城市经济特征、流动人口在总人口中的比例都是影响城市融入的重要因素。对于南北方流动人口城市融入的差异,方言具有很大的影响,推广普通话有利于流动人口的城市融入。