Research team: Prof. Dr. Javier Revilla Diez and Moritz Breul, MA (University of Cologne), Dr. Sören Scholvin (University of Hanover), Celio Hiratuka (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil), Maurício Aguiar Serra (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil), Ana Paula Vidal Bastos (Universidade Federal do Pará, Brazil)

Duration: 2015 - 2021

Funded by: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Project description

The contours of the global economy have changed noticeably over the last decades. The rise of emerging economies in Africa, Asia and Latin America have contributed to the development towards a new multipolar global order. In this context, especially major cities in the Global South experience a high intensity of international activity and an outstanding growth in contrast to the nation-state they belong to. Global City research emphasizes the central role of these places for the organization of the global economy. However, to date the role of Global Cities has been largely occluded when it comes to put them in the context of their region. This issue is especially relevant in a Global South context in order to understand the specific role Global Cities in developing and emerging economies play for their surrounding regions. The research project takes this gap as a point of departure and aims to explore the role of Global Cities in the Global South for their hinterland. The project conceptualizes these cities as Gateway Cities in order to shift the focus to regional linkages between Global Cities and their hinterland.

The issue will be empirically explored by a mixed method approach encompassing quantitative as well as qualitative research methods. The project consists of three case studies, namely Singapore, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro/Sao Paulo. It is jointly carried out by the University of Cologne, the University of Hanover and collaboration partners from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas and the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil.