* Transnational spatial relations offer a key point from which to study the geographies of contemporary globalization. * This book assesses the possible cross-fertilization between two of the most notable analytical frameworks - the world city network framework and the global commodity chain framework.

1. World Cities and Global Commodity Chains: An introduction (Ben Derudder and Frank Witlox). 2. World City Networks and Global Commodity Chains: Towards a World-Systems' Integration (Ed Brown, Ben Derudder, Christof Parnreiter, Wim Pelupessy, Peter J. Taylor and Frank Witlox). 3. Global cities in Global Commodity Chains: Exploring the Role of Mexico City in the Geography of Global Economic Governance (Christof Parnreiter). 4. City Networks and Commodity Chains: Identifying Global Flows and Local Connections in Ho Chi Minh City (Ingeborg Vind and Niels Fold). 5. Cities, Material Flows and the Geography of Spatial Interaction: Urban Places in the System of Chains (Markus Hesse). 6. Integrating World Cities into Production Networks: The Case of Port Cities (Wouter Jacobs, Cesar Ducruet and Peter De Langen). 7. Intra-firm and Extra-firm Linkages in the Knowledge Economy: The Case of the Emerging Mega-city Region of Munich (Stefan Lüthi, Alain Thierstein and Viktor Goebel). 8. Making Connections: Global Production Networks and World City Networks (Neil M. Coe, Peter Dicken, Martin Hess and Henry Wai-Cheung Yeung). 9. Global Inter-city Networks and Commodity Chains: Any Intersections? (Saskia Sassen). Index.

Transnational spatial relations offer a key point from which to study the geographies of contemporary globalization. This book assesses the possible cross-fertilization between two of the most notable analytical frameworks in this area: the world city network (WCN) framework, in which researchers have studied the emergence of a globalized urban system; and secondly, the global commodity chain (GCC) framework, in which researchers have scrutinized the interconnected functions, operations and transactions through which specific goods are produced, distributed and consumed in a globalized economy. Both literatures have emerged as critiques of conventional, state-centric social science interpretations of their subject matters, and they both propose what might be called ‘global network alternatives’. Bringing together contributions of key researchers from human geography, economics, and sociology, the editors take advantage of this parallel to investigate how both models may benefit from each other.