This paper presents a critical debate about the extreme selectivity through which the existing body of literature identifies the critical factors in urban development and competitiveness. It highlights the need to establish policies aimed at "ordinary cities" (Amine Graham, 1997) and "ordinary...

The study of polycentrism is responsible for identifying subcenters that integrate urban systems, as well as measuring the magnitude of the phenomenon in urban reality. This paper presents the analysis of measure of functional polycentricity, applying the functional polycentricity index...

Social and territorial spaces around the world are undergoing economic restructuring due to globalization process that has led to the removal of restrictions on capital mobility and the factors of production, and therefore, flows of capital, goods, technology, and especially the expansion of...

Global cities' competitiveness factors among the Asian countries This article identifies the factors of global cities' competitiveness, focusing on Asian countries. First, it describes the importance of global cities in the economy, particularly those competiveness factors, which are originated...

Polycentrism is becoming one of the dominant structures in contemporary metropolises. Concentrated decentralization and the integration of formerly independent cities by the reduction of travel time are behind of such a process. In this paper, the spatial structure of the seven biggest metro...

Firms display persistent differences as regards both internal and external characteristics, and these differences correspond to asymmetries in the performance of firms with regard to productivity level and growth as well as innovativeness. This paper focuses on one internal characteristic and...

The paper summarizes the concept of Global city with Chinese characteristics from a comparative perspective, points out that the Chinese emphasis on global cities' influence and competitiveness, which is different from the command and control function stressed by the Western. Taking Beijing as a...

A situation whereby the communes have the most efficient of income sources, including several local taxes, means that a metropolitan area - which is typically composed of several districts and several dozen communes - does not have a uniform and effective system of financing its activites. It...

In 2010 the World Health Organisation dedicated the Word Health Day to urbanization and health, highlighting the impacts of urban living on physical and mental health. This is because it is increasingly acknowledged that cities face various problems that undermine the quality of urban life,...