<i>‘This book provides a comprehensive view of global urban competitiveness, offers a useful methodology for its comparative study in different socioeconomic and territorial contexts, and is supplemented with reflections and case studies from around the world. Reading it is highly recommended to understand contemporary patterns in industrial and services location among cities, and the effects of such spatial concentration in the urban labor markets and in the quality of life of the urban population.’</i>
- Jaime Sobrino, El Colegio de México,
<i>‘Theoretically informed contributions to this empirically rich text introduce a timely critical perspective to the urban competitiveness literature, emphasizing that the notion of competitiveness applied in economic analysis cannot be conferred simplistically on city relations. A range of environmental, cohesion, technological innovation, cultural diversity and governance alongside business and GDP empirics presented in the book points to the complexity of contemporary cities and the diversity of processes that define their distinctive roles in global networks and circuits. The book illustrates the danger of competitive interpretations of global rankings, paving the way for new research agendas focusing on fine-grained city relational analyses.’ </i>
- Kathy Pain, University of Reading, UK,
<i>‘In this report the authors present the ranking concerning the sustainable competitiveness performance in 2013 of 500 cities from all over the world. The report not only shows the difference between the rankings of 2013 and 2011 but it also offers an extensive analysis of a huge data set on global urban competitiveness from a regional point of view. In addition the report also contains special contributions on issues related to sustainable urban competitiveness, for example green cities, institutions, world city networks and population aging. An exciting book, highly recommendable!’</i>
- Leo van den Berg, Euricur/Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands,
<i>‘This book is an updated assessment of the urban competitiveness of 500 cities in the world, based on seven indicators supported by data from the most authoritative sources. It is a valuable resource for comparing the positions of various cities in the league table of global urban competitiveness. The chapters in Part II written by leading experts of urban competitiveness and urban studies, make this book a valuable reference on the recent conceptual and methodological advancements in urban competitiveness studies.’</i>
- Jianfa Shen, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Included is a full discussion on the structure, trends and determinants of global urban development, prosperity and competitiveness, and comments on the policies and initiatives that are adopted by the most competitive cities. Chapters written by eminent scholars and researchers from organizations such as the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, World Bank and OECD analyze key problems in sustainable urban competitiveness. The research shows how global cities can improve their competitiveness and the analysis reveals that global urban competitiveness has increased overall, the highlight being emerging economy cities. The comprehensive and concise index system and valuation method, and stable and reliable data, provide an accurate reflection on many aspects of a city and its competitiveness.
Scholars and researchers in the areas of urban economics, planning, geography and regional economics will find the information invaluable, as will local authorities, decision-makers and economic planners in cities throughout the world.
Contributors include: M. Cointreau, L. Kamal-Chaoui, P.K. Kresl, C. Li, M. Li, Q. Li, K. Liu, W. Liu, P. Ni, B. Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, S. Sassen, P.J. Taylor, X. Wang, J. Wei, S. Wei, J. Yang, X. Yang, A. Zhang