Migrants, markets and multinationals: city competition
Urban areas compete with one another for people, goods, capital, ideas and other inputs of economic activity. Under the rubric of globalization, instead of only maintaining or improving the initial stock of assets in a city, the power of a place to attract outside flows of economic activity from elsewhere is increasingly important to economic development. Similarly, global or world cities are characterized as the command and control points through which these global economic flows operate.
Richard Florida, Cities and the creative class
1En interpellant une nouvelle génération de chercheurs et d’urbanistes, dans son essai très controversé « Cities and the creative class », Richard Florida annonce sa théorie humaniste selon laquelle la compétitivité, la croissance et le développement des villes ou des régions ne dépendent plus de leur proximité aux matières premières alimentant les industries et la densité de leurs réseaux de communications, mais plutôt de leur capacité à attirer et à conserver les travailleurs créatifs, scientifiques, ingénieurs, chercheurs, romanciers, artistes, acteurs, designers, penseurs de la société contemporaine. Si la théorie de Richard Florida parait attrayante pour de nombreux professionnels de l’urbanisme et les partisans d’un libéralisme social, tant en Amérique du Nord qu’en Europe, elle n’en est pas moins controversée. 1 Florida R., (2007), The Flight of the creative class: the new global competition for talent, Harper (...) 2 Lévine Marc V. (2004).
Diversity and Power in the World City Network
This Research Bulletin has been published in Cities, 19 (4), (2002), 231-241. doi:10.1016/S0264-2751(02)00020-3 Please refer to the published version when quoting the paper. (Z) P.J. Taylor, D.R.F. Simply by naming we homogenise the world. Diversity only implies difference but lurking behind all socially constructed differentiations there is inequality of power. This paper is primarily a presentation of empirical findings. The parameters of this study are as follows. Just as in his national scale research, for Friedmann (1978, 329) power is treated as a 'stock of resources' to be used instrumentally as 'power over' others. Power as a capacity is just one of the conceptions of power that Allen (1997) identifies. Because Sassen (1995) focuses on 'centrality', Allen (1999) identifies Castells (1996), with his concept of a 'space of flows', as better describing network power among world cities. The approach we adopt is as follows. (i)World City Connectivity. (i) Dominant Centres.
The Curse of the Creative Class by Steven Malanga, City Journal
Providence, Rhode Island, is so worried that it doesn’t appeal to hip, young technology workers that local economic-development officials are urging a campaign to make the city the nation’s capital of independent rock music. In Pittsburgh, another place that fears it lacks appeal among talented young people, officials want to build bike paths and outdoor hiking trails to make the city a magnet for creative workers. Meanwhile, a Memphis economic-development group is pressing that city to hold “celebrations of diversity” to attract more gays and minorities, in order—in their view—to bolster the local economy. If you think these efforts represent some fringe of economic development, think again. All of these cities have been inspired by the theories of Richard Florida, a Carnegie Mellon professor whose notion that cities must become trendy, happening places in order to compete in the twenty-first-century economy is sweeping urban America. Florida’s ideas are making headway in Canada, too.
Globalization and inter-city cooperation in Asia
Globalization has increased the role of a country's capital city as an agent of cross-national cooperation. The arduous task of solving urban problems can no longer be handled by a single city or viewed as the domestic affair of a nation-state that cannot be interfered by others. In Northeast Asia, the three capital city governments of Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo have taken steps to cooperate among themselves through promoting the exchange of capital, labor, information, and technology. This study reviews the BESETO (Beijing-Seoul-Tokyo) cooperative scheme and considers it the beginning of a cooperative model, which can ideally promote regional integration as well.
Creative class
The Creative Class is a posited socioeconomic class identified by American economist and social scientist Richard Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. According to Florida, the Creative Class are a key driving force for economic development of post-industrial cities in the United States. Overview[edit] Florida describes the Creative Class as comprising 40 million workers (about 30 percent of the U.S. workforce). Super-Creative Core: This group comprises about 12 percent of all U.S. jobs. In addition to these two main groups of creative people, the usually much smaller group of Bohemians is also included in the Creative Class. In his 2002 study, Florida concluded that the Creative Class would be the leading force of growth in the economy expected to grow by over 10 million jobs in the next decade, which would now be the present day (2012) and equal almost 40% of the current population. Notes[edit]
Amartya Sen : Un économiste du développement ?
Sous la Direction de Valérie Reboud Amartya Sen est-il à l’origine du concept de « développement humain », créé par le Programme des Nations Unies pour le Développement en 1990 ? Qu’est-ce que son « approche par les capabilités », traduction que nous avons donnée ici au terme anglais de « capability approach », et pourquoi des travaux scientifiques et des textes institutionnels sur le développement s’y réfèrent-ils ? La notion de « capabilité » a-t-elle le même sens chez les différents auteurs qui l’utilisent ? Que serait une politique de développement « en termes de capabilité » ? Cet ouvrage cherche à éclairer ces différentes questions. Cliquez ici pour télécharger le document.
Amartya Sen, la pauvreté comme absence de capacité
L’apport du prix Nobel d’économie a-t-il influé sur les politiques ? Projet - Les thèses d’A. Sen sur la capabilité, sur l’intégration des aspirations individuelles dans les logiques de développement, ont-elles contribué à modifier les réflexions des économistes ? Christian de Boissieu – Depuis fort longtemps, Sen travaille sur les façons de réconcilier deux objectifs souvent disjoints : l’efficacité économique et la justice sociale. Pierre Jacquet – Amartya Sen conteste les visions réductrices de la pauvreté uniquement fondées sur l’observation du niveau et de l’évolution du revenu par habitant des différents pays. Contrairement à la grande tradition du XIXe siècle, les économistes de la seconde moitié du XXe se sont largement retirés de l’analyse des choix sociaux et de la théorie de la justice. Sen reconnaît que la « capabilité » ou la liberté d’entreprendre peut être très différente selon les personnes. Pierre Jacquet – Amartya Sen considère que la science économique est morale.
