This Handbook offers an unrivalled overview of current research into how globalization is affecting the external relations and internal structures of major cities in the world.

The recent renaming of the Dutch Randstad into 'DeltaMetropolis' can be seen as part of a broader strategy to capitalise upon the region's metropolitan and economic potentials and to strengthen its international competitive position. This strategy was first presented by the national planning...

Lambregts B. Geographies of knowledge formation in mega-city regions: some evidence from the Dutch Randstad, Regional Studies. An important source of competitiveness for mega-city regions results from their capacity to combine a strong local knowledge capital base with high levels of...

Urban residential neighbourhoods, including migrant neighbourhoods, have become important incubation zones for small businesses in recent years and policy-makers and academics alike are wondering which local factors affect this development. This paper analyses the extent to which migrant...

At the end of the 1980s, almost a quarter of the labour force in Amsterdam was without a job. This was about twice the Dutch national average. In the 1970s and the early 1980s, the unemployment rates of Amsterdam and the Netherlands as a whole, differed only slightly. Among the unemployed in...

Cultural planning has been high on the agenda of many policy-makers. From an end in itself, it has been transformed into an instrument to regenerate neighbourhoods and even whole cities and as a means to boost the quality of place to attract high-skilled workers. With the current crunch on...

Cultural industries are becoming in general more important in advanced economies as sources of employment and economic growth. In this paper, a quantitative exploration is given of recent trends in cultural industries in the Netherlands. The data show a rapid rise of employment in the cultural...