Work

City-states in relational urbanization: the case of Luxembourg and Singapore

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: Post-industrial global urbanization has seen the rise of territorial economic development strategies predicated on reconfiguring the urban landscape to conform to novel forms of economic production, often under the guise of “global city” development. This paper reorients the conversation on global city development by highlighting the intermediary roles that particular cities play in brokering flows of global knowledge, goods, and capital through novel spatial-economic configurations. We identify a sub-set of city-states characterized by territorial economic development strategies that are exemplary of “relational” processes. Luxembourg and Singapore serve as illustrative cases in which urban territorial development is guided almost entirely by an exogenous orientation benefitting from an intermediary positionality. Although all cities are in some way “relational” in their politico-economic orientation, these extraordinary cases highlight a number of novel concurrent socio-spatial processes which enabled them to capture key advantages conferred by their positionality in relation to regional and global flows.

Source: Urban Geography

DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2021.1878331

Authors: Catherine Wong, Markus Hesse, Thomas J. Sigler

Institutions: National University of Singapore, University of Luxembourg, The University of Queensland

Language: English

Topic: Global Urban Networks and Dynamics

Subfield: Urban Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Sustainable cities and communities, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: green

Funder: Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg