Using urban networks to gain new insight into old questions: Community, economy, bureaucracy

ABSTRACT

This special issue of the Journal of Urban Affairs brings together a series of 10 papers that illustrate the range of ways that networks can be used to better understand cities and communities. They employ a wide range of network methods, in a diverse sample of places, at different scales, to answer thorny questions in urban studies. However, together they highlight how network approaches can shed new light on three broad areas of urban inquiry: the nature of community in urban areas, the role of scale and form in urban economic development, and the potential for coordination in fragmented and polycentric regions. In this synthesizing paper, we use these papers to explore how a network approach offers new ways of thinking about these issues. We also use them to guide reflection on two questions: are networks an essential concept in the urban study toolkit, and how can the utility of networks for urban studies be extended further?

Acknowledgments

We thank the Urban Studies Foundation for supporting the 1st International Symposium on Urban Networks, which took place in September 2017 in Ghent, Belgium, and served as the catalyst for this special issue.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zachary Neal

Zachary Neal is associate professor of psychology and global urban studies at Michigan State University. He is also an Associate Director of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network, and serves as an editor for Journal of Urban Affairs, Evidence & Policy, Global Networks, and Routledge’s Metropolis and Modern Life book series. His research focuses on the use of network science theories and methods for understanding cities at multiple scales, from neighborhood social relations to global economic relations. He is the author of more than 70 books and articles, and his work has been covered by national and international media outlets. Details about his past and current work can be found at http://www.zacharyneal.com

Ben Derudder

Ben Derudder is Professor of Urban Geography at Ghent University’s (Belgium) Department of Geography, an Associate Director of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network, and a Senior Visiting Professor at Shanghai Normal University. His main research interests are (1) the conceptualization and analysis of transnational urban networks (with a focus on production and infrastructure networks) and (2) the emergence of polycentric urban regions. His research has been published in major scientific journals dealing with urban and regional questions. He has co-edited a number of books, and a second edition of World City Network: A Global Urban Analysis (together with P. Taylor) was published with Routledge in 2016, and later translated and published in Chinese with Phoenix Education Publishing in 2018. He is currently one of the Associate Editors of Regional Studies, and co-coordinates a Regional Studies Association Research Network on “polycentric urban regions.”

Xingjian Liu

Xingjian Liu is with the Department of Urban Planning and Design at The University of Hong Kong. He studies urban and regional development with a focus on the patterns, causes, and effects of urban spatial structure and systems. He has published in key urban and regional journals and is also a member of the Globalization and World Cities research network.