The character of our political environment is increasingly being defined as a global one. According to this view, borders and geography matter less and less while capital, information, entertainment, people, and services move swiftly around the globe in “spaces of flows”. While the general mechanisms and dynamics of globalization have been analysed rather extensively in the field of international relations, the study of their effects has concentrated mostly on the state level. However, research from neighboring disciplines such as geography and sociology has recently demonstrated how the dynamics of globalization tend to crystallize not only in states, but in specific city regions as well. [1] Global flows need to originate, to be channelled, and to arrive somewhere. Metropolitan areas function as the centers, nodes, hubs, and gateways of global business, culture, and social relations.

For at least three reasons, city regions constitute an increasingly important political sphere of their own: 

1. As cities and city regions are affecting the lives of more and more people, the issue of urbanization has led to a growing volume of research devoted to urban development and governance.

2. Faced with the burden of adjusting to globalization, many central state governments respond, though not always voluntarily, with the devolution of political tasks and authority to sub-state levels. [2]

3. Regions, and city regions in particular, are rapidly becoming centers of economic activity, innovation, and growth, independent from the national economic environment. [3] 

This comparative research project is interested in the transformation of governance under the dynamics of globalization. It focuses on “global city regions”. The project wants to explore how globalization affects the integration - or disintegration - of city regions within their respective national political and economic systems. Attention is paid to the role different actors (public, public-private, and private) and different political levels (local, national, and global) play in influencing city-region governance.
 

Our research is guided by two key questions:

(1) Is city region governance becoming increasingly autonomous with respect to the state level?

(2) Is there a shift from the public to the private sector?

The expected influence of the various aspects of globalization on urban governance is shown in the diagram below:


In order to address our guiding questions, we have analyzed developments in four global city regions: Johannesburg (South Africa), Mumbai (India), São Paulo (Brazil), and Shanghai (China). We expected changes in the role of governance to be especially evident in these city regions. We explicitly chose city regions in non-OECD countries because the bulk of research conducted on global cities thus far had dealt with cities in the OECD-world. Looking at less-researched city regions might offer new insights for the field of global city research. In addition, we expected that the exceptional problems and challenges stemming from the enormous social disparities in these city regions might also be a cause for more accentuated changes in governance than would be the case in city regions in more developed countries.

The time period we cover is from the early 1990s until 2002. We consider this to be a period in time during which Brazil, India, China, and South Africa underwent significant transformations with regard to political decentralization and the opening up to the global economy.

The entire research project has been realized in cooperation with local partners in the respective city regions. The questions raised call for an inter-disciplinary approach. Thus we incorporated different academic backgrounds such as political science, urban studies, economics, sociology, and geography. Most of these disciplines have dealt with cities as entities and objects of academic interest for a long time.

The project was carried out from April 2002 to September 2004. In the course of the project, we visited the four project cities, namely Mumbai, Johannesburg, São Paulo, and Shanghai in order to meet with our partners of cooperation and to gain insight into the problems, challenges, and development prospects of each city regions. Preliminary research results were discussed in depth among the project partners at a workshop in Berlin from 8 to 11 August 2003. An interdisciplinary network of researchers interested in issues related to global city regions has developed in the course of the project and continues to exchange knowledge and ideas.

The project was sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation within the programme on Global Structures and Governance.

[1] Cf. Knox/ Taylor 1995: World cities in a world-system; Sassen 1991: The Global City; Sassen 1994: Cities in a World Economy; Scott 2000: Globalization and the Rise of City-Regions, GaWC Research Bulletin No. 26.
[2] Cf. McCarney 1996: Cities and Governance 9f:, Scott 2000: Globalization and the Rise of City-Regions, GaWC Research Bulletin No. 26: 3; Scott/ Agnew/ Soja/ Storper 1999: Global city-regions, Conference paper at the Global City-Regions Conference, Los Angeles.
[3] Cf. Storper 1997: The regional world. Territorial development in a global economy; Cooke/ Morgan 1998: The associational economy. Firms, regions, and innovation; Knox/ Taylor 1995: World cities in a world-system; Sassen 1994: Cities in a World Economy.