A new paper analysing major changes in world city dynamics over more than two decades, using GaWC data for 2000, 2012 and 2024:
Liu, X., Derudder, B., Feng, X., Zhang, F., Lu, J., Shen, W., Taylor, P.J. and Hoyler, M. (2026) ‘An urban roller coaster? Shifting geographies of global urban connectivity, 2000-2024’, ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography.
World cities function as international service centers, but they also drive the evolving patterns of (de)globalization that create unbalanced geographical development across world-regions. World city-formation is therefore a moving target: some cities have strengthened their global connections, while others experience a decline in connectivity over time. This paper explores these trajectories by examining changes in world city connectivity for three time points (2000, 2012, and 2024). The analysis is based on the application of a network model on the spatial distribution of offices of globalized producer services firms. Our findings indicate that global connectivity is above all rising in the Asia-Pacific region. Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen have become global connectivity hotspots, while several cities in North America and Europe have experienced relative declines. Unsurprisingly, St. Petersburg and Moscow recently demonstrated the most pronounced signs of being disconnected from global networks. These changes underscore the dynamic nature of cities’ global network connectivity in the context of ongoing processes of (de)globalization.
https://doi.org/10.1515/zfw-2025-0066 (Open access)