The development of urban transnational spaces in the world city: the Japanese case in Düsseldorf, Germany

ABSTRACT

This article explains the development and diversification of transnational spaces by exploring the growth and morphology of the interior transnational spaces in different periods of a world city, to respond to scholarly debates on the homogenization influences of globalization on localization and urban specialization. Via first-hand research and second-hand data, this study adopts quantitative and qualitative methods to observe the spatial dynamics of transnational elements in the city of Düsseldorf. I outline the development history of the city, from a small fishing village to a metropolis and from a world city to the core city of a global city region before going on to analyse the long-term developments and continuous spatial embedding of Japanese economic and social elements, then discuss the role of actors and their interactions in forming transnational spaces in Düsseldorf in modern times. Research results indicate that the influences and interactions of multiple actors play a key role in the process of spatial shaping and improvement of transnational functions, as well as in the (re-)localization of transnational elements. Transnational actors are urban participants and influence the behaviour and decision-making of urban government departments, thereby affecting the city’s development.

KEYWORDS:

• Globalization
• transnational space
• world city
• urban development

Acknowledgements

My deepest gratitude to my supervisors Prof. Kraas and Prof. Nipper, my colleagues Dr Rafflenbeul and Dr Pahl for fieldwork support and research suggestions during my PhD study at the University of Cologne.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.jihk.de/de.

2 GaWC’s World City Rankings: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/gawcworlds.html.

3 https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 42101197, 41930646].