Changes in the spatial articulation of world cities: A network analysis of air passenger flows.

摘要

Although the pattern of linkage among cities around the world is theoretically of importance in the face of the sweeping globalization phenomena, little is known empirically about interrelations among cities at the world level. This study is an effort to describe the basic structure of the global city system focusing on the network characteristics of the global inter-city relationships from data on the flow of airline passengers among cities around the world. Special attention is paid to connections among Asian cities which emerge as a key axis in the current global economy.; The global economy significantly influences the social life of cities around the world and is manifest in segmented and uneven patterns. The late twentieth century saw deindustrialization in the core countries, the shift of industries toward less developed countries, and economic boom in several developing countries. These changes, according to some, mark “new international division of labor.”; By carefully observing the changing patterns of air passenger flows among cities around the world in different points in time from the 1970s through the 1990s, this study describes the morphology of the world city system. Specifically, this study reports changes of volume in airline traffic among Asian cities and interprets them in terms of the global economy. Also a detailed result of cliques and equivalence is provided from a network analysis in order to explain the changing pattern of inter-city relations.; This study found that the Asian cities are more closely linked to the global cities in other regions of Europe and North America in terms of air traffic volume and number of city-contacts. Within the Asian city network, two major city cliques are identified: Northeast Asia Clique and Southeast Asia Clique. Asian city network itself becomes more dense and hierarchical, and a number of global cities with higher centrality emerged in the region.