The Urban Response to Internationalization

THIS BOOK EXAMINES the economic challenges and opportunities facing urban centres in the first quarter of this century as a result of growing globalization and regionalism, and offers some policy insights that will assist urban leaders to enhance the positive features of globalization for their constituents while mitigating the potentially harmful dimensions. It provides a comprehensive treatment of the issues surrounding internationalization, and their impact on urban affairs in different parts of the world, targeted at both scholars and researchers of economics, urban studies and public policy, and at those in city administrative and leadership positions.

Chapter 1 introduces the topic. It explains how some of the forces that promote the role of cities or urban economies – such as changes in technology, trade and market liberalization, and the diminishing intervention of the nation states in local economies – have dramatically impacted on the economies of urban regions and the responsibilities of city leaders. Chapter 2 deals with the role of urban economies in their own economic futures, as cities have been placed at the centre of the viability of certain economic activities in certain locations and of the evolution of local and national economies. It explains how municipal leaders are forced to take a new look at their international competitiveness for their city to maintain its position in the urban hierarchy. In Chapter 3, the authors examine the effects of internationalization on municipal foreign affairs. Most governments in large municipalities, and even in some medium and small-sized cities and towns, are carrying forth activities that transcend the national boundaries in a effort to protect and enhance the economic interests of the constituents they represent – such as better employment, more competitive local companies and more diversified economic bases. This section also explores a more controversial dimension of municipal foreign affairs, as some municipal leaders attempt to engage directly in either formulating or implementing their own version of foreign policy, even if it might run counter to the foreign policy priorities of their national governments. Chapters 4 explains how the changes in technology over the last 30 years have opened up many exciting new opportunities for the urban economies of the industrialized world, but might also be responsible for the possible destruction of many traditional activities that have provided them with the base for their economic lives. They have given rise to new industries while transforming others with regard to the level and nature of skills required by workers. This, in turn, has generated new streams of migrants from rural to urban areas and from low-income to high-income countries. All these changes also transform relationships of economic and political power among the classes, economic groups, and ethnic, gender and race communities in the urban economy, bringing new thoughts on the notions of clusters, agglomeration and other constants. The following Chapter 5 thus examines the major challenges now being faced by municipal leaders and then offers an initial blueprint for successful municipal governance. Chapter 6 is concerned with inter-city cooperation and competition and their impacts on the structures of inter-city interaction in different areas of the world. In Chapter 7, the authors address a series of practical questions to assist local governments and planners improve their strategic planning for enhancing competitiveness. Chapter 8 then concludes by reviewing the major issues confronting urban economies in the near future.