POLYNET - (Sustainable Management of European Polycentric Mega-City Regions)
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POLYNET (Sustainable Management of European Polycentric Mega-City Regions)
1. POLYNET is designed to contribute to the EU Interreg IIIB Programme Priorities “An Attractive and Coherent System of Cities, Towns and Regions” and “External and Internal Accessibility”. It will focus on how to enhance complementarity between polycentric city regions in NorthWest Europe and promote cross-border sustainable development.
2. Polycentricity and Sustainable Urban Development: The ESDP adopts a central principle of promoting greater polycentricity, allied to decentralised concentration: development should be dispersed from congested urban regions, but reconcentrated in centres in less developed regions, benefiting both kinds of region. This is related to sustainable urban development: urban planning should recognise the prime objective of conserving non-renewable resources and avoiding irreversible ecological effects; cities should remain compact, shortening travel distances and reducing car dependence (Commission EC 1990). National governments have accordingly prioritised regeneration of brownfield land (GB Urban Task Force 1999, GB Urban White Paper 2000). But the ESDP concept of sustainability also concerns interdependencies between economic, social and environmental factors. These will be integral to our research, which will contribute specifically to understanding priorities for: i) improved access to information flows, skills and knowledge and ii) sustainable mobility within NWE.
3. But polycentricity needs to be carefully defined. At the highest level, it refers to the development of alternative global centres of power. Within a European context, this would use beneficial global economic and knowledge flows coming into global (and sub-global) cities like London, Paris and Frankfurt to benefit cities in other parts of Europe (Hall 1993, Hall 1996) - especially “gateway” cities outside North West Europe, and also smaller cities within that region. But at a finer geographical scale, polycentricity refers to outward diffusion from major cities to smaller cities within their spheres of influence, sometimes over a wide area, as found in seven areas of North West Europe:
a. South East England, where London is now the centre of a system of some 30-40 centres within a 150-km. radius;
b. Delta Metropolis in the Netherlands, encompassing the Randstad cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht, but now extending outwards to include the cities of Almere, Amersfoort and Breda;
c. the Rhine-Main region of Germany, encompassing core cities of Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Mainz and Offenbach, but extending widely outwards as far as Limburg in the north, Aschaffenburg in the east, Darmstadt in the south and Bad Kreuznach in the west;
d. around Dublin, within a 50-60 km. radius, but particularly northward along the Dublin-Belfast corridor; here decentralisation appears to extend as far as Newry, crossing national boundaries;
e. Paris represents a special case: through the 1965 Schéma Directeur, pressures for outward decentralisation have been accommodated into major new city concentrations within the agglomeration, with little impact on the surrounding rural areas. However, recent research shows that the economic core of the region is however no longer the historic Ville de Paris, but a “Golden Triangle” bounded by the western arrondissements of Paris; La Défense; and the southern suburbs of Boulogne-Billancourt and Issy-les-Moulineaux (Beckouche 1999, Halbert 2002).
f. European Metropolitan Region of Zürich is an incipient “Mega-City Region” extending in a discontinuous linear pattern from St. Gallen in the east to Basel in the West and down to Lucerne in the south with Zürich as the core city;
g. Rhine-Ruhr is one of the world’s largest polycentric Mega-City Regions, embracing 30-40 towns and cities with a total population of some 10 million people, in this case with no obvious “core city”.
4. Concentrated deconcentration in these areas (though not in Paris) has produced a new urban form, the “mega-city”: a cluster of up to 40-50 cities constituting a networked urban region with up to 20-30m people, drawing enormous economic strength from a new functional division of labour and connected by dense flows of people and information along motorways, high-speed rail lines and telecommunications systems. This form has been recognised in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze Delta Regions of China (Hall 1999, Hall and Pfeiffer 2000). Allen Scott has titled the largest such areas the “Global City region” (Scott 2000); this proposal builds on his pioneering work. However, in discussing the areas now in question, we think it most accurate to refer to a Global Mega-City-Region. In Europe, new work suggests that the so-called Central Area of North-West Europe is an incipient Mega-City region of 37m people (Anon 2002), characterised by functional divisions of labour between city units in a highly networked region and by intensive development along transportation corridors (Ipenburg et al 2001). Within such regions, people appear increasingly indifferent as to which cities they relate to (Kloosterman and Musterd 2002); the “space of flows” (Castells 1989) becomes extremely complex. The proposal seeks to fill a major gap by studying systematically the actual operation of such regions - and their potential fusion - including material and virtual information flows within and outside them and their implications for other NWE policy.
5. Our research will uniquely aid in understanding the functional synergies and complementarities associated with inter-city flows and connectivities (ICT and transportation) in such regions. Important here are the relations between electronic and face-to-face information exchange: diminishing transport and communication costs may bring the “Death of Distance” (Cairncross, 1995, 1997); but telecommunications may also complement and stimulate face-to-face contact (Goddard 1973, Hall 1998, Graham and Marvin 1996, Beaverstock et al 2001). A recent study of business clustering in London by the GaWC (Globalisation and World Cities) Group at the University of Loughborough emphasises the importance of face-to-face contact as a key agglomeration factor (Taylor et al 2003), central London firms exhibited interdependencies across a wide South East city-region, but many so-called back offices have dispersed to the wider region. Specialised business services, such as law and accountancy, establish themselves there to serve local clients (Breheny 1999).
6. Our hypothesis is that falling costs of transportation and (more particularly) communication, combined with new informational agglomeration economies, lead to the emergence of a highly complex “space of flows” (Castells 1989) at the level of the “Global Mega-City-Region”, reconfiguring previous geographical relationships. This follows a “Christaller rule”: lower-level service functions may be performed at lower levels of the urban hierarchy (Christaller 1966 (1933)). These new urban regions achieve major agglomeration economies through clustering of activities, not in any one centre, but in a complex of centres with some degree of functional differentiation between them.
7. At this scale “sustainable concentrated deconcentration” suggests that growth should be guided on to selected development corridors along strong public transport links, including high-speed "regional metros" such as proposed for London, or even along true high-speed lines such as London-Ashford, Amsterdam-Antwerp or Frankfurt-Limburg (Ipenburg et al 2002). These would not represent continuous urbanisation, but clusters of urban developments around train stations and key motorway interchanges up to 150 kilometres, from the central city, thus reducing the probability of long-distance commuting and assisting remoter areas.
8. However, there is an incipient contradiction, central to the current proposal: achieving greater polycentricity at the widest scale (pan-European, pan-NWE) may be compromised by local outward evolution of the highest-level cities, through local deconcentration, into polycentric mega-city-regions. NWMA Interreg IIB EURBANET and recent GaWC studies (Kloosterman and Musterd, 2001; Ipenburg and Lambregts, 2001; Taylor et al 2003) suggest that polycentric urban regions in NWE exhibit features that conflict with ESDP sustainability objectives; this demands further research.
9. In this study we propose to build on established GaWC methodologies (Beaverstock et al 1999 a,b, 2000 a,b, Taylor et al 2002 a,b), with a quite new intra-regional focus, to study patterns of informational flow within key North West Europe “Global Mega-City-Regions”. This will integrate the most recently available data on traffic, commuting and telecommunications flows with unique primary research on cross-border financial and business services operations thereby contributing to both Interreg IIIC Priorities 1+2.
10. We will address new interrelated research questions: First, how are virtual and material flows of information and people reconfiguring intra-regional relationships? Are functional relationships between top-level and other centres in these regions changing? To what extent are other urban centres dependent on, or independent of, service industry concentration in core cities? (Here the focus of inquiry will be largely intra-regional). Second, in what ways are changes in regional functional relations affecting the cross-border connectivities of these regions within Europe and globally? To what extent will changes contribute to, or damage, transnational service business connectivity? (Here the focus will be on cross-border relations). Third, in what ways are these flows different as between the four polycentric mega-city-regions and the much more “monocentric” Île-de-France region? Can it be said that one or the other pattern is more sustainable, and if so in what ways and to what degree? The flows we propose studying are trans-boundary and have key relevance for development across NWE (and the wider EU), hence trans-nationality and co-operation are integral to the proposal.
11. We believe the proposal is innovative in addressing ESDP objectives for European economic competitiveness in the global economy through the promotion of trans-boundary NWE inter-city-regional co-operation, particularly because it will focus specifically on fast-growing borderless business services which are key to the global competitiveness of the whole EU, thus adding to the Interreg IIC GEMACA II study. Previous GaWC research endorses the view that competition between cities/regions/ states, or boosterism, is unhelpful to the promotion of beneficial cross-border flows of skills, knowledge and information; our research will make a tangible contribution to understanding how policy co-operation in NWE can support positive trans-boundary flows. A key concern will be what forms of governance are appropriate in the contemporary era of globalisation. The results of the study will have benefits for all research partners (and the wider EU area) in relation to cross-border ESDP priorities for sustainable development/polycentricity/balance. A specific objective will be the formation of permanent NWE trans-boundary policy networks (building on the Interreg IIC Network of Cross-border Urban Networks project) possibly by means of an Action Project to implement concrete policy responses to the research findings.
Objectives
12. There are four complementary basic aims, requiring transnational collaborative study:
(1) To investigate how contemporary processes of business decentralisation and spatial concentration affect geographies of urban service network flows in seven NWE Global Mega-City-Regions.
(2) To assess the way in which evolving patterns of service network flow between urban centres in these regions are impacting on informational flows within NWE nation states, the entire EU, and globally.
(3) To enhance understanding of how patterns of flow identified in these regions may affect other city-regions in the same nation states, and the EU more generally.
(4) To achieve these aims within a geographically-focused research framework with clear relevance and tangible benefits for regional, national and transnational European sustainable development and spatial planning policy.
13. To this end, we will supplement existing GaWC studies of NWE “global core cities” by selecting, for detailed study an average of six medium to large urban centres representing a cross-section of development and location characteristics in each of the seven regions. The precise selection will be made in discussion at the first Workshop, so as to ensure that the cases were as far as possible similar and comparable. In cases where no previous study has been made of the “core cities” themselves, these will be included in the present study.
14. We will concentrate on key finance and business services - banking, insurance, accountancy, management consulting, law and advertising - which have been the main focus of previous GaWC studies. We also include design consultancy (such as architecture, civil engineering and planning), logistics services and cultural industries. These business service activities will be subject to detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis, with specific objectives:
Research Objectives (Quantitative):
15. To plot movements of people and information within the seven regions. This will lead to a geographical representation of patterns of flow between urban centres within the regions and between those centres and their hub city.
16. To create an inventory of finance and business service firms in each of the urban centres. This will lead to enumeration of the total organisational population to be studied.
17. To ascertain the geographical scope of the firms listed in each inventory so as to classify them as local, regional, national, European or global in the distribution of their office networks. This will lead to a geographical classification of firms to be used subsequently.
18. To measure the network connectivities of each urban centre at the four different non-local geographical scopes. This will extend current business service connectivity comparisons (since existing GaWC quantitative analysis deals only with a global scale of analysis).
Research Objectives (Qualitative):
19. From a sample of non-local scope firms, to investigate how business within the seven study regions is conducted. This will lead to detailed examples of intra-regional relations and flows.
20. For the same sample of firms as in 19, to investigate how business is conducted at different scales: within the country concerned, outside that country but in Europe, outside Europe. This will lead to detailed examples of relations and flows at each scale: between the regional urban centres and other parts of the country; between the regional urban centres and other parts of Europe, including the degree to which a core regional hub operates as a national business articulator (remembering national scope firms can still operate cross-border through arrangements with partner firms in other cities); between the regional urban centres and other parts of the world, including the degree to which a regional hub operates as a global articulator.
21. For the same sample of firms as in 19, to ascertain trends in service markets in terms of geographical scope. This will lead to examples of recent and anticipated changes in geographical patterns of service flow.
22. For the same sample of firms as in 19, to explore the reasons behind the provision of non-local business service and why it is changing. This will lead to discursive treatment of the policy implications.
23. To examine the policy context within which these changes are occurring. This will lead to the identification of key issues arising from the empirical results that need to be taken forward in policy frameworks and to the formulation of specific policy recommendations.
Action Plan
24. The study, which will be conducted in four phases, will have three major Action components - data collection, analysis and evaluation - and a fourth Action component in which the results from these research activities will be integrated, appraised and reported on.
Action 1.1 Analysis of Personal Movements (para. 15 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
25. Traffic: We will draw together the findings of key traffic studies relevant to each region, particularly those offering detailed journey origin/destination data such as the UK, Orbit: Transport Solutions around London, November 2002, study.
26. Commuting: The latest national data/Census results, including journeys to work, will be used to provide a comprehensive database and maps for each region of origins and destinations by mode of travel, supplementing more geographically limited detailed traffic studies.
27. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Amsterdam Workshop (1), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results to be discussed and compared at Paris workshop (2).
Action 1.2 Quantitative analysis of service business connections (paras. 16-18 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
28. Service business connections: These will be studied, using techniques of information collection and data construction adapted from those employed in the GaWC ESRC World City Formation in a Space of Flows, 2000-2001 study. Experiments will be conducted to convert the techniques developed by GaWC (in the measurement of global connectivity) to measure regional connectivities covering all four non-local geographical scopes (para. 17).
29. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Amsterdam Workshop (1), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at Paris workshop (2).
Action 2.1 Qualitative analysis of business linkages through interviews (paras. 19-22 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
30. Institutional interviews: Here we will repeat the established in-depth interview techniques that have proved to work extremely effectively in previous GaWC studies. We will begin with a series of interviews with key regional players and policy-makers: regional agencies, local authorities and professional and trade organisations, to provide background information on key policy issues.
31. Firm Interconnections: We will then conduct a large scale face-to-face interview survey in an average of six selected urban centres within each of the seven regions: sixty or more interviews for each region. For each centre, firms will, where possible, be sampled from all four non-local scopes. A questionnaire schedule will be developed to cover all the points listed in paragraphs 19-22.
32. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Paris Workshop (2), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at Heidelberg workshop (3).
Action 2.2 Quantitative analysis of telecommunications traffic (para 15 & 19-22 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
33. Telecommunications traffic: We also propose using respondent travel diaries to map in-work journeys and a sample of telephone and e-mail traffic, since there appears to be no other way at present to obtain these data (Martin Dodge (CASA, University College London), personal communication 28/11/02).
34. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Paris Workshop (2), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at Heidelberg workshop (3).
Action 3.1 Analysis of policy responses (para. 22 & 23 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
35. Policy responses: Textual analysis of policy statements and plans for each of the study regions will be analysed to gain an understanding of official policies (at national, regional and local levels) to guiding and controlling growth, and their relationship to ESDP and North West Europe policy statements.
36. A key question to be addressed will be how the concept of polycentricity should be operationalised in policy-making practice. Particular emphasis will be placed on pinpointing areas of synergy between ESDP/NWE policy priorities and the virtual and material flows identified and mapped in the research. The policy analysis will therefore have a critical role in the study, allowing the results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses to be applied to tangible policy implementation issues and questions with subsequent development of practical policy recommendations.
37. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Heidelberg Workshop (3), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at Dublin Workshop (4).
21. For the same sample of firms as in 19, to ascertain trends in service markets in terms of geographical scope. This will lead to examples of recent and anticipated changes in geographical patterns of service flow.
22. For the same sample of firms as in 19, to explore the reasons behind the provision of non-local business service and why it is changing. This will lead to discursive treatment of the policy implications.
23. To examine the policy context within which these changes are occurring. This will lead to the identification of key issues arising from the empirical results that need to be taken forward in policy frameworks and to the formulation of specific policy recommendations.
Action Plan
24. The study, which will be conducted in four phases, will have three major Action components - data collection, analysis and evaluation - and a fourth Action component in which the results from these research activities will be integrated, appraised and reported on.
Action 1.1 Analysis of Personal Movements (para. 15 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
25. Traffic: We will draw together the findings of key traffic studies relevant to each region, particularly those offering detailed journey origin/destination data such as the UK, Orbit: Transport Solutions around London, November 2002, study.
26. Commuting: The latest national data/Census results, including journeys to work, will be used to provide a comprehensive database and maps for each region of origins and destinations by mode of travel, supplementing more geographically limited detailed traffic studies.
27. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Amsterdam Workshop (1), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results to be discussed and compared at Paris workshop (2).
Action 1.2 Quantitative analysis of service business connections (paras. 16-18 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
28. Service business connections: These will be studied, using techniques of information collection and data construction adapted from those employed in the GaWC ESRC World City Formation in a Space of Flows, 2000-2001 study. Experiments will be conducted to convert the techniques developed by GaWC (in the measurement of global connectivity) to measure regional connectivities covering all four non-local geographical scopes (para. 17).
29. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Amsterdam Workshop (1), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at Paris workshop (2).
Action 2.1 Qualitative analysis of business linkages through interviews (paras. 19-22 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
30. Institutional interviews: Here we will repeat the established in-depth interview techniques that have proved to work extremely effectively in previous GaWC studies. We will begin with a series of interviews with key regional players and policy-makers: regional agencies, local authorities and professional and trade organisations, to provide background information on key policy issues.
31. Firm Interconnections: We will then conduct a large scale face-to-face interview survey in an average of six selected urban centres within each of the seven regions: sixty or more interviews for each region. For each centre, firms will, where possible, be sampled from all four non-local scopes. A questionnaire schedule will be developed to cover all the points listed in paragraphs 19-22.
32. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Paris Workshop (2), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at Heidelberg workshop (3).
Action 2.2 Quantitative analysis of telecommunications traffic (para 15 & 19-22 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
33. Telecommunications traffic: We also propose using respondent travel diaries to map in-work journeys and a sample of telephone and e-mail traffic, since there appears to be no other way at present to obtain these data (Martin Dodge (CASA, University College London), personal communication 28/11/02).
34. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Paris Workshop (2), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at Heidelberg workshop (3).
Action 3.1 Analysis of policy responses (para. 22 & 23 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
35. Policy responses: Textual analysis of policy statements and plans for each of the study regions will be analysed to gain an understanding of official policies (at national, regional and local levels) to guiding and controlling growth, and their relationship to ESDP and North West Europe policy statements.
36. A key question to be addressed will be how the concept of polycentricity should be operationalised in policy-making practice. Particular emphasis will be placed on pinpointing areas of synergy between ESDP/NWE policy priorities and the virtual and material flows identified and mapped in the research. The policy analysis will therefore have a critical role in the study, allowing the results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses to be applied to tangible policy implementation issues and questions with subsequent development of practical policy recommendations.
37. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Heidelberg Workshop (3), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at Dublin Workshop (4).
Action 3.2 Identification of key recommendations for policy action (para. 22 & 23 above)
Partners involved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
38. Recommendations: Recommendations will be formulated meeting the urgent need for empirical research to inform policy in relation to polycentricity. The following focused activities will reflect the strong Project Team commitment to integration of academic research and policy-making practice:
(1) Identification of – first, key features and issues relating to polycentricity that need to be taken on board in the further development of the NWE Spatial Vision; second, lessons that can be learned to enhance policy frameworks within and across administrative boundaries in NWE; third, the potential for co-operative action within and between NWE mega-city-regions to promote inter-urban connectivities and positive informational and investment flows (increasing EU competitiveness on the global stage and sustainable long-term development).
(2) Recommendations for action to establish a Joint Transnational Policy Network. These will take forward empirical evidence from the study on functional relations and flows associated with cross-border service networks to suggest ways in which a co-operative transnational policy network might be constituted to tap into informational synergies that tie NWE mega-city-regions together.
39. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Heidelberg Workshop (3), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at Dublin workshop (4).
Action 4.1 Report Writing, Communication and Publicity
Partners involved: 1 ,2 ,3 ,4, 5, 6, 7
40. In line with the project focus on positive policy action outcomes, effective dissemination to a wide audience will be a critical final activity. Data and results from Actions 1.1 – 3.2 will be presented in a series of detailed Interim Research Reports. These will be summarised and edited into a major book-length publication that will also be the subject of a major international conference and press release attended by invited key public and private players (and representatives of major NWE newspapers) in London.
41. The Interim Research Reports and a Report of the Conference Proceedings will be made widely available free to the general public and special interest groups (policy-makers, business groups, voluntary bodies, academic enquirers) by means of an ICS dedicated Project Web-site linked to the institutional web-sites of all project partners. E-mail address lists held by project partners will be used to communicate details of the Project Web-site to a wide audience.
42. Experience of previous successful publicity within the project team will be drawn on to maximise outreach through a Project Conference and Publications Strategy extending dissemination beyond initial publication of the Interim and Final Research Reports and Project Conference.
43. Co-operation: All partners to attend face-to-face meeting at Dublin Workshop (4), followed by agreed e-mail and telephone communication strategy; results discussed and compared at London workshop (5); on publication, presentation at London Press Conference.
Organisation of the project
44. This work will be organised round parallel study teams in seven North West Europe research institutions with an eighth specialised study partner in the UK:
(1) The Institute of Community Studies, London (Lead Partner) (project director: Professor Sir Peter Hall). (Overall co-ordination and South East England case study.)
(2) Department of Geography, University of Amsterdam (Professor Robert C. Kloosterman). (Delta Metropolis case study.)
(3) Institute of Geography, University of Heidelberg (Professor Peter Meusburger, Director of the Department of Geography; Michael Hoyler, Research Officer). (Rhine-Main case study.)
(4) Université Paris-1 (Professor Pierre Beckouche; Ludovic Halbert, Research Officer). (Île-de-France case study.)
(5) The Urban Institute Ireland (Professor John Yarwood). (Dublin case study.)
(6) ETH Zürich (Prof. Dr. Alain Thierstein, Professor Christian Kruse) (European Metropolitan Region of Zürich case study.)
(7) Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (ILS), Dortmund (Professor Rainer Danielzyk) (Rhine-Ruhr case study.)
Additionally a specialised role will be played by external consultants, with research assistance, at an eighth institution:
(8) Department of Geography, Loughborough University (Professor Peter J. Taylor). (GaWC quantitative analysis.)
45. Each of the seven parallel teams will contain a senior team leader (named) and two full-time research officers (or part-time equivalent), one for 24 months and one for 12 months (named where already identified), plus appropriate technical and administrative backup. The project leader team in London will additionally employ a second full-time research officer primarily concerned with co-ordination, and a 25% administrative post both for 24 months.
