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The article discusses empirical research investigating the connectivity of Chinese cities in the world city network (WCN) in 2010. Topics include an overview of the WCN, which is a regional approach developed by research institute the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) to understand cities in relation to globalization, the role of business services firms in city network formation, and the significance of the uneven integration of Chinese cities in the WCN.

In this article the author discusses aspects on the pedagogic hegemony over hierarchical relations between intercity relations. He cites on the to sets of materialist mechanism of city structures such as the agglomeration process creating economic clusters and connectivity process creating economic networks both between cities. The author points that parallel paradigms exist in the less well-research area of the external relations of cities in economies.

The article examines the role of development studies institutions and power relations in a globalized world. It notes that the changing nature of the global knowledge economy must be considered in any attempt to study the role of such institutions either globally or within specific local contexts. Challenges facing research organizations in the South are cited, including problems of staff recruitment and retention. Also outlined are measures that could be taken to address such issues.

This is a critique of Polèse's recent paper entitled ‘Cities and national economic growth: a reappraisal’ which purports to test the ‘Jacobs hypothesis’. It is argued that both main variables used, ‘national levels of urbanisation’ and ‘per capita GDP growth’, are mis-specified. The critique is related to the state-centric nature of social science and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on the expansion of economic life in cities. The expansion of cities results in the creation of dynamic, complex and diverse economies. Five forces of economic growth produce diverse city economies. These forces include the following: enlarged city markets, increased numbers and kinds of jobs, transplants of city work, new uses for technology and growth of city capital. When these forces operate singly and do not compensate each other, they produce simple economic regions, instead of producing complex economies.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the European Union body dedicated to providing sound, independent information on the environment. It is a major information source for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy in Europe, and also for the general public. In line with its mandate, the EEA has developed — focused around a set of policy relevant questions — a set of indicators to assess progress in Europe in integrating environmental considerations into the energy sector. Each question is answered through one or more indicators describing the development of the sector in Europe, implications for the environment and links to policy actions. The indicators cover not only the current situation, but also trends and prospects and, most importantly, point to the conditions for change that are needed for progress towards a more sustainable energy policy that benefits the environment. The results of the most recent assessment are presented in this article and show that in many areas of environmental integration there have been some successes, but overall progress to date has been insufficient. Substantial additional action will therefore be required in the future if the European Union is going to move towards a more environmentally sustainable energy system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-locating electricity storage with demand has significant potential to increase consumption of locally-generated electricity, defer infrastructure investments, and contribute to the task of balancing supply and demand on the wider network. In the UK, unlike domestic consumers, large enterprises are already incentivised to reduce peak demand through exposure to time- and demand-dependent network charges. This paper considers the potential of electricity storage to reduce the bills of large enterprises, focusing on Lancaster University as a case study. Through analysis of Lancaster University's recent demand and generation data and current and future charges, it is shown that recent widening of red distribution charge time bands has reduced the value of electricity storage to enterprises, and that in 2015 an enterprise such as Lancaster University could have expected electricity storage to deliver annual savings of around £27 per kWh of storage capacity, by reducing network charges. An analysis of these charges around Great Britain shows that the opportunity for storage to provide savings to enterprises is greatest in the south-west (at least £70/kWh.yr in 2017) and lowest in the north of Scotland (at least £20/kWh.yr). Whether investment in storage provides positive value to enterprises is shown to be strongly dependent upon location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response to Polèse's rebuttal. The author presents his summary positions for taking the debate forward including the complexity of the idea of the cities, treating the cities as the transhistorical social objects and necessity of the states for the management of the economic activity. It also includes Jacobs' ideas that are hard to refute for the information is limited and the implication of the city complexity in Jacobs import-shifting over export-led economic growth.

The article focuses on a study about globalization in the financial and business service sectors. It states that data based from the context of the Globalization and World Cities research network was used in the study. It also discusses the roles played by main cities in China, former Soviet Union (FSU), former Eastern Bloc, and India in transporting flows of goods, capital, and people in 2000-2008. Results show the persistence of geographical idiosyncracies in their international connections.