TY - JOUR

T1 - Revisiting gateway cities

T2 - connecting hubs in global networks to their hinterlands

AU - Scholvin, Sören

AU - Breul, Moritz

AU - Diez, Javier Revilla

N1 - Funding Information: We presented a preliminary version of this article at a workshop at the University of Campinas (Brazil) in February 2016. We would like to thank Paula Bastos, Mariane Françoso, Celio Hiratuka, Patrícia Mello and Maurício Serra for their comments. The workshop served as a kick-off for the project “Gateway Cities and their Hinterland,” financed by the German Research Foundation and the São Paulo Research Foundation. We are also grateful for the feedback received while discussing this project with James Sidaway, Godfrey Yeung, Aidan Wong and Karen Lai from the Politics, Economies and Space Research Group at the National University of Singapore in October 2016. We owe particular thanks to Richard Grant, who made essential suggestions on a draft of this article.

PY - 2019/10/21

Y1 - 2019/10/21

N2 - Gateway cities have received much attention from urban geographers. In spite of outstanding contributions being made, we think that the concept needs to be revisited with regard to regional development implications. Bringing together research on global production networks (GPNs) and world cities, this article shows that gateway cities are critical for development in networks, generating impulses for peripheral locations by engaging them in processes of “strategic coupling.” Yet, gateway cities also concentrate segments of GPNs to the detriment of their hinterlands. We conceptualize gateway cities with the aid of five features: logistics and transport, industrial processing, corporate control, service provision and knowledge generation. Our concept allows for an understanding of cities in global and regional economic processes beyond corporate headquarters, corporate services and governance–that is, beyond the boundaries of existing research. It unsettles traditional understandings of strategic coupling and world cities, filling a lacuna on city–hinterland connections.

AB - Gateway cities have received much attention from urban geographers. In spite of outstanding contributions being made, we think that the concept needs to be revisited with regard to regional development implications. Bringing together research on global production networks (GPNs) and world cities, this article shows that gateway cities are critical for development in networks, generating impulses for peripheral locations by engaging them in processes of “strategic coupling.” Yet, gateway cities also concentrate segments of GPNs to the detriment of their hinterlands. We conceptualize gateway cities with the aid of five features: logistics and transport, industrial processing, corporate control, service provision and knowledge generation. Our concept allows for an understanding of cities in global and regional economic processes beyond corporate headquarters, corporate services and governance–that is, beyond the boundaries of existing research. It unsettles traditional understandings of strategic coupling and world cities, filling a lacuna on city–hinterland connections.

KW - Gateway cities

KW - global production networks

KW - oil and gas industry

KW - Singapore

KW - world cities

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062347791&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/02723638.2019.1585137

DO - 10.1080/02723638.2019.1585137

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85062347791

VL - 40

SP - 1291

EP - 1309

JO - Urban Geography

JF - Urban Geography

SN - 0272-3638

IS - 9

ER -