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Cities in European territorial
development
Cities of Tomorrow
Workshop 1: Urban Challenges
Brussels, June 28-29, 2010
Moritz Lennert
IGEAT-ULB
THE EUROPEAN SPATIAL PLANNING
OBSERVATION NETWORK
Challenge: Balancing the
territory
Source: http://creativeclass.com
The permanence of spatial
structures
The localisation of
print shops and
of universities in the
late 15th century
Source: Foucher (1994),
represented in Vandermotten (2008)
Cities are the result of
agglomeration
European
population
around
1720, 1820,
and 1930
Source: Haliczer (1934), represented in Vandermotten (2008)
It's the (agglomeration)
economy, stupid !
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•
•
•
Agglomeration economies are an
undeniable fact proven by the mere
existence of cities...
...but we have no idea which ones and
how they play out exactly
Agglomeration diseconomies are also
observable...
...but we have no idea if there is any
threshold beyond which these
diseconomies outweigh the economies...
=> political choice between growth and
diseconomies
Challenge: big cities as motors
of European growth
Source: http://www.hottr6.com/triumph/TR6motor.html
Big cities as motors of EU
growth
Differences between growth rates of largest cities and EU or
national average
Source: ESPON FOCI
Cities and the crisis
Evolution of
unemployment
between 2007 and
2009 as compared
to national means
(for each country,
national average =
100)
Source: national statistical offices
and unemployment agencies
Cartography: Pablo Medina-Lockhart
Big cities are...
...central hubs of the post-industrial knowledge economy:
Big cities are...
...locations of command and control
Big cities are...
...gateways to the global economy:
Big cities are...
…connecting nodes in networks of innovation:
Are cities autonomous
economies ?

Decomposition of variance of GDP growth of
cities:
EU variance =
intra-national variance + inter-national variance
NUTS3 approximations of Urban Audit cities,
n=224
Challenge: ensuring the global
competitiveness of Europe's cities
Source: GaWC, http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/world2008c.html
Big cities are...
…often fairly closed economies
Proportion of
subsidiaries
owned by a firm in
the same city
European cities' position in the
global city network
Relative location quotient of different advanced
producer services in different continental blocks (all
services=100)
Source: Taylor (2010), “Advanced Producer Service Centres in the World Economy”, in P.J.
Taylor, P. Ni, B. Derudder, M. Hoyler, J. Huang and F. Witlox (eds), Global Urban Analysis: A
Survey of Cities in Globalization London: Earthscan, accessed at
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb349.html;
Some cities are less connected
than others
Based on air and rail time
tables
 Contactability as indicator of
connectivity of cities in
networks

Europe's cities are losing the global
race for agglomeration forces
Number of cities per continental block in top 100 of
total GDP in 2008 and 2025 (PPS 2008)
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers UK Economic Outlook November 2009
Europe's cities are losing out –
really ?
Number of cities per continental block in top 100 of
GDP/capita in 2008 and 2025 (PPS 2008)
Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers UK Economic Outlook November 2009, and
UNPD Urban population projections
Challenge: social polarisation
Urban growth in the knowlegde
economy: for whom ?
The evolution of the Gini coefficient in 5 large Belgian cities
Source: IGEAT, Growth and Social Exclusion, project for the Belgian Federal scientific
policy, draft final report; cities are approximated by NUTS 3
Urban growth in the knowlegde
economy: for whom ?
The evolution of the income of the lowest decile in 5 large Belgian cities
Source: IGEAT, Growth and Social Exclusion, project for the Belgian Federal scientific
policy, draft final report; cities are approximated by NUTS 3
Urban growth in the knowlegde
economy: for whom ?
The evolution of the number of qualified and manual jobs 1991 – 2001
in 5 Belgian cities:
Thank you !
Moritz Lennert
IGEAT – ULB
[email protected]