World cities and territorial states under conditions of contemporary globalization

This is largely an empirical paper which uses a unique set of office geogra phy data to describe inter-city relations across the world. After identifyi ng a set of 55 world cities, these patterns are related to states in a prel iminary analyses of city-state connections. Particular emphasis is placed u pon identifying trans-state processes and regional city hierarchies. This e mpirical reporting is sandwiched between a theoretical and practical introd uction and conclusion. Using Braudel's conceptualization of capitalism as a world of monopolies, world city formation is introduced as a particular ge ographical knowledge nexus for creating new monopoly products. In the concl uding section, the future of globalization is linked to the possibilities f or world city network knowledge monopolies. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.