The position of the Noordvleugel in worldwide economic networks

Over the past decades, there is increasing interest in the economic networks between cities, in which it is argued that the rise of the network economy is the result of advances in ongoing globalization, transport and communication technology, common markets, the individualization of production and the growth of multinational firms. It is said that these aspects significantly impact on the spatio-economic structure of cities and regions (e.g. Batten, 1995, Anas et al., 1998), in which the monocentric city is transforming into a polycentric urban network. However, a paradox in this process is the focus of academics and policymakers on sub-national regions as the essential unit of economic activity. In general, most studies and policies fail to conceptualize regional development in an era of globalization (Dicken and Malmberg 2001). Instead, a combined strategy of global production networks and regional assets should be pursued, in which activities are understood across different geographical scales (Coe et al., 2004, Dicken et al., 2001). Today, only a limited number of world city network studies exist (due to scarcity of relational data), e.g. international banking (Meyer 1986), producer service firms (Taylor, 2004), MNC governance (Alderson and Beckfield, 2004), and corporate directorates (Carroll, 2007).