Globalization and world cities: some measurement methodologies

An Achilles heel of world city research is the lack of available data that quantifies the changing positions of cities in the world city system and hierarchy. This paper begins to address this poverty of data by showing that appropriate data can be identified and analysed to study relations between world cities. The paper contains three distinct sections which deal with the practicalities of the generation, collection and storage of relational data. First, the necessity of standardization, to make comparisons between world cities' relations credible, is advanced. Secondly, three different measurement methodologies (of increasing power, but with specific functions) are advanced (surrogate, labour and organizational), and illustrated through three pieces of research, to specify a world city's external relations. Thirdly, both practical ways of organizing research to obtain relational data, and a World Wide Web initiative designed to store and make available data across the globe, are outlined. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.