PETER J. TAYLOR. URBANISTS SERIES

Peter J. Taylor founded City Networks and City/State Relations (GaWC) in 1998. Taylor intention was promoting the study of how cities relate to each other economically, important under conditions of contemporary globalization. 

GaWC was devised as a vehicle to bring together researchers from across the world to share their work. A very useful model because of the sheer magnitude of studying inter-city relations in globalization. Peter J. Taylor personal contribution has been the specification of the world city network as an interlocking network model with leading business service firms as the network makers. This model has the basic advantage of both conceptual clarification and practicable data requirements enabling empirical evaluations of a changing world city network. This research is recorded in two books

• World City Network: a Global Urban Analysis (Routledge, 2004) and 
• Global Urban Analysis: A Study of Cities in Globalization (Earthscan, 2011). 

Subsequently Taylor generalises the model historically, portraying cities developing as commercial networks. This is presented in Extraordinary Cities: Millennia of Moral Syndromes, World-Systems and City/State Relations (Edward Elgar, 2013). 

The latter work has brought to the fore two themes he is currently working on: (i) bringing the state back in through a bi-layered global spatial-economy model combining cities in spaces of flows with states operating through spaces of places; and (ii) exploring the idea of green networks of cities as a contribution to environmental change debates.

World works and policy advising

As an urban analyst Peter Taylor has worked with economic development agencies in Abu Dhabi, Chengdu, Dublin, London, Milan and Sydney. Taylor views cities as concentrations of work, and development as generation of new work that produces an increasingly complex division of labour. He brings a deep generic knowledge to urban policy development which he endeavours to combine with existing local knowledge of the city, the latter including from public officials plus, often untapped, private sector understandings of how a city is working. Empirically this entails benchmarking a city within the world city network so as to ensure urban policy incorporates understanding global trends.

"Peter Taylor is Emeritus Professor of Human Geography at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and Emeritus Professor of Geography at Loughborough University, UK. A Fellow of the British Academy, he has published approximately 450 books and articles, over 60 of which have been translated into one or more of over 20 languages. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Ghent and Oulu. For a personal memoir, see his pdf What Would Calverton Do? Only twenty four essays from Tynemouth."

The GaWC Team of Key Researchers

David Bassens (Brussels) Associate Director (Financialization)
Jonathan Beaverstock (Bristol) Associate Director (Financial and Professional Services, Global Labour Mobility and International Management)
Martijn Burger (Rotterdam) Associate Director (Multinational Strategy and City Networks)
Ben Derudder (Ghent) Associate Director (City Network Analysis)
James Faulconbridge (Lancaster) Associate Director (Business and Professional Services)
John Harrison (Loughborough) Associate Director (Regional and City Governance)
Michael Hoyler (Loughborough) Associate Director (European Cities)
Xingjian Liu (Hong Kong) Associate Director (Asian Cities)
Zachary Neal (Michigan State) Associate Director (Multi-Scale Urban Networks)
Kathy Pain (Reading) Associate Director (Global City Planning)
Christof Parnreiter (Hamburg) Associate Director (Cities in the ‘Global South')
Peter Taylor (Northumbria) Director (City Networks and City/State Relations)
Allan Watson (Loughborough) Associate Director (Cultural and Creative Industries)
Frank Witlox (Ghent) Associate Director (Transport and Logistics)

GaWC collaborates with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences's Center for Cities and Competitiveness. Director: Pengfei Ni

Original version from his web page [link]