The last twenty years has seen a resurgence of social scientific interest in cities and regions, with two cross-national trends the subject of most debate: 'state rescaling' and a rediscovery of the actual and potential roles of cities and regions in underpinning and enhancing the competitiveness of national economies. These two trends have been brought together in theoretical literatures that emphasise the role of globalising processes in reshaping the way cities and regions are perceived, valued and governed. These trends have been treated in many complex ways; however, the conceptual debate can be captured in two simplified and contrasting views of the rise of the ‘global-local nexus’; characterised here as the ‘globalising logic’ and the ‘globalising neo-liberalism’ schools of thought. What makes the task of weighing the analytic contribution of these two schools of thought difficult is the fact that they are both built up either from ‘pure’ conceptual argument or from observations of developments within a single country. What is lacking is a coherent, structured and tightly integrated account of change in different national contexts that can provide the empirical material needed to test conceptual arguments adequately and assess the degree of similarity between specific national trends and experiences.
This volume fills this important gap in the market. It brings together a team of established and emerging European and North American scholars. Each, individually, has an exceptional track record in research on sub-national institutional restructuring and urban/regional policy change. Members of the team have also worked together on the key issues that the volume focuses upon. The individual chapters produced by team members will be new pieces, specifically written for this volume. Each of the national case study chapters will be produced to a common format. The guidance provided to authors will be specific enough to provide the focus that is needed to make the overall analysis truly comparative whilst being sufficiently flexible to allow each author to draw out the themes that are of particular importance within ‘their’ specific national context.
