Bart Lambregts, Amsterdam institute for Metropolitan and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Inter-city relationships and connectivity through business services connections in the Dutch Randstad (assigned to theme
Inter-city relationships in urban networks may take various shapes. Empirical research into the pattern and strength of such relationships is, however, due to all kinds of practical problems, rather thin on the ground. In this paper, we address this gap by showing how cities in the polycentric urban region of the Randstad are, through the office networks of advanced business service providers, connected to: a) each other; b) other cities in the Netherlands; c) the larger cities of Europe; and d) major cities around the world. We apply a multi-scalar and quantitative approach in which we use the office networks of 150 to 200 multi-office business service firms to calculate cities’ network connectivity on the regional, national, European and global levels. The service sectors that we deal with are: accountancy, advertising, finance, insurance, design consultancy, law, logistics services and management consultancy. The analysis provides insight in the relative strength of linkages between pairs of cities in the Randstad and it tells us which cities in the Randstad occupy the most central position in business services networks at the regional, national, European and global scales. Finally, we will discuss whether the findings support the idea of the Randstad representing a functionally integrated urban network or not.
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(copyright Gunther Maier) |