Introduction The demand for office locations has been growing rapidly during recent decades. This has been the consequence of several important developments in the economy, including an increasing emphasis on the service sector. In addition, decreasing transport costs and reductions in trade restrictions are giving firms a stronger international orientation (Dunning and Norman, 1987). A related...

This paper takes for granted the structural urbanisation trend in our world. It argues that there is a global competition among world cities in different parts of our planet. It aims to map out the relative disparities among a preselected set of major global cities by offering a benchmark analysis of these cities on the basis of a recently completed comparative study on their socioeconomic ‘pow...

It is in cities, and not the countryside, where the human ‘creative flame’ has burnt most brightly. For millennia they have been the centres and drivers of commercial, scientific, political and cultural life, having major influence upon whole countries and regions. The positive and progressive aspects of cities and urban centres recognized by historians, economists and other social scientists c...