Why are cities not states?

1. Why are cities not states? Alan Freeman

2. Governance of London • The questions • Where should London’s boundaries be? • How big should a borough be? • How should either and both be governed?

3. The problem: where to stop?

4. East-West issues I: the jobs

5. East-West issues II: the commuters

6. Why is a city not a state? • Only two points in history when cities assumed state-type functions • Greece 700-315 bc • Italy 950-1515 • In each case absorbed by a larger territorial project • Nation state has become the dominant form

7. Working definition • Function of political power is to optimise the achievement of social objectives by economic means

8. However, the nation-state is in crisis • ‘Globalisation’ (=world market in capital, plus multilateral economics institutions) • Economy is world-wide, nation is territorially bounded. • Existing boundaries being redrawn • But what is in question? • Not ‘the nation’ but ‘which nation’ • Devolution • Is London really the same as Scotland? • City exists as a component part of a nation

9. London: between two continents • Globalisation has in fact undermined the political basis of multilateralism • Return of unilateral political action • Decline of the multilateral institutions • But inadequacy of the national form remains • Structural crisis of the nation-state • But no sign that the city has heightened autonomy • Conclusion: cities, even global cities, can only optimise in context of relation to world and national economy • But which nation?

10. The ‘World City’ hypothesis (Geddes, Sassen, Hall, LPAC) World cities are four or more of: • Finance and commerce • Culture, knowledge and/or creativity • Communication • ‘Power and influence’ or command and control functions both worldwide (eg Headquarters of TNCs, transnational bodies) and nationally (core government functions) • Tourism and/or: • Function within their country as a centre for entrepot and export processing

11. The GLA World Cities Project • Originally concerned with World City Hypothesis but now more limited • ‘Core Cities’ project • Regional productivity differentials targetted by HM Treasury • Cities thought to be drivers of regional growth • so cities want to measure their productivity • LDA • Want to learn best practice relations with other cities • GLA Economics • Want to understand London by comparing it with other cities

12. The aims • Comparable data • Continuous data • Robust data BUT…

13. The world according to Parkinson Source: Core Cities project

14. Growth according to three suppliers

15. Why so many different estimates? • City definition • Employment • Output

16. Can this be overcome? Extract from the Eurostat guide to regional data

17. Apparently not

18. Urban Audit – first (official) attempt to classify and measure cities ‘Cities have generally been defined as the central municipality which is responsible for local government. In most countries, the city corresponds to the concept of Local administrative unit (LAU) level 2 (formerly NUTS level 5). Exceptions to this rule are listed below. Given that the structure of local government varies a lot between EU countries, the result is a city concept that is not always comparable between countries. The emphasis has been on identifying a city concept with political responsibility in the various countries. ‘The following countries have defined “city” differently than LAU level 2 in the context of the Urban Audit. Belgium; France: Portugal: United Kingdom: Ireland:

19. Some population estimates…

20. Does it matter? GVA per capita in Euros – EU15=100 (Paul Cheshire)

21. And now for something entirely different…

22. Invention and transformation: The integration of Kondratieff waves with social, geographical and geopolitical change (Perez)

27. Not cycling but waving?

28. What happened in the nineties?

29. Creative Industries: a qualitative reshaping of industrial structure Jobs growth London’s output growth 1995-2000 Output growth

30. And a new regional pattern of growth jobs growth

31. Including in London itself London: CI job growth 1995-2000

32. Job density: a reminder

33. Is there a pattern of specialisation? I = working in Creative industry O= in Creative Occupation O  I = Total Creative Workforce = industry + occupation (DCMS definition) O I = ‘specialist’ workforce (any creative occupation also working in creative industry) O I /O  I = ‘Creative Factor Utilisation’ indicator

34. Where is the money going? Woodward, 30 years on ? ?? ???

35. A new technological paradigm? • Small runs, big bucks: mass producing difference The end of the market in sameness What matters: on spec, and on time • Birth of a new industrial structure Capital flows into optimising small unit production Flexible manufacturing becomes a universal technique Design becomes a universal factor of production

36. Redefining production • Redefining the city • Economies of scale no longer a property of the unit • Agglomeration as such is the source of economy • The city is the new location for agglomeration economies • Redefining human capital • ‘Knowledge’ and ‘information’ imply once-for-all transfer • If so they cannot be a ‘factor’ of production • Creativity is ever present in production because each project is new • Capacity to ‘transform to a vision’ (produce to an incomplete spec)

37. What London might be doing • New market, both domestic and global High value-added, short-run, differentiated consumer services and products • New production paradigm Flexibly specialised hi-tech delivery of services, or products which are close substitutes for a service (eg films, videos) • New factor of production Creative capacity • Organised through specialist productive units • Using the new factor of production • in the new production paradigm • to produce commodities to the new market