Cities And Hierarchy Essay Research Paper Critically

Cities And Hierarchy Essay, Research Paper

Critically assess the forces which are influencing the shape of a new European urban hierarchy (Hall, 1993). Use case studies to illustrate and assess how individual cities are positioning themselves in this new spatial order.

Throughout Europe, cities and regions have launched on a path of competitive redevelopment by means of a variety of strategies, ranging from large-scale mega developments and integrated action plans to community- based local re-conversion efforts. These schemes are spread over the European urban and regional landscape, operating in a variety of regulatory, political and socio-economic contexts, welfare regimes and public policy frameworks and combine private and public initiatives and finances in a great diversity of institutional framework. However, they are comparable in the sense that they are inserted in and grapple with epochal global trends and attempt to re-assert their position in the new global economic competitive climate and its associated technological, cultural and social transformations. Each of these produces a series of profound mechanisms of exclusion/integration and, at the end of the day, it is such activities, which shape or moderate the process of polarization and exclusion itself.

The 1980 s saw competition between European cities for mobile investment in a variety of ways. Multinational enterprises boosted this competition through looking at the location of new productive plants and offices, this therefore saw city governments promoting and marketing themselves in a more beneficial way in an effort to be a magnet for inward investment. They saw ways to Hall mark events such as major sporting events; cultural festivals and trade fairs which can all have considerable economic effects. I will be looking at Barcelona, Dublin and Lille and at the different strategies they have used to respond to global, economic pressures within and between cities in positioning themselves in the European urban hierarchy and the changes that have taken place.

Differences in infrastructure and human capital are widely recognised as contributing significantly to variations in regional competitiveness. The economically stronger and more prosperous regions of the Community are generally more richly endowed with more resources, while the lagging regions typically have serious deficiencies (Commission of the European Community, 1994, p. 65).

All major cities have become actively involved in what has been termed city marketing . There are ways in which academics have sought to identify cities from the best to the worst, this has been established through league tables. From these league tables the cities to be at the most highest are obviously seen as the most appealing cities to live in and also for investment. Rankings are made on the basis of economic variables such as gross domestic product per head, the unemployment rate, pressure for the demand for space or the proportion of the workforce employed in higher-order occupations. Quality of life is measured in ways such as education, health care, cultural or leisure facilities and environmental variables.

A new geography of Europe is emerging which ignores national frontiers. The most successful cities are located in what Hall termed the blue Banana . Cities in the core derive considerable scale economics and access advantages whilst cities in the periphery do not and must bare substantial distance costs (Lever 1992:936)

The core banana covers the cities of London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich and Milan. A subsidiary core banana has developed which encompasses Mediterranean cities like Barcelona, Marseilles and Nice and which is connected to the first banana through the Alpine region. Most of the successful or those furthest up the hierarchy are located within these regionalised cores.

These advantages have resulted in growth due to the specialised high technology manufacture and information processing. The Commission of the European Communities has pointed there are weaknesses which are forcing investors to move out; the high costs of wages and land and also the congestion and pollution. They also stated that the older urban centres in the core have older populations and will in time undergo a demographic decline whereas the younger populations of the periphery will engender further progress.

There is not a single urban hierarchy in Europe. Rather there are a number of overlapping hierarchies, which centre on particular functions…. Each urban area is in competition with a range of others according to the economic function and the sphere of influence – global, national, or regional – at which it performs its specialisms (Commission of the European Community, 1994, p. 44).

The paradox in this statement illustrates the crucial point in the debate about territorial competition within the European urban system. It is not the urban areas themselves that are directly in competition, but the economic specialisms and functions, which operate from within them. The locations of economic activities – new production and service facilities, international institutions and major cultural and sporting events – are also a function of an urban area’s social capital. The externalities generated by the degree and level of social capital are the basis for urban areas competing for