ABSTRACT
It has become clear that urban development is fundamentally influenced by position in the world economy. This raises important questions about how we understand this process. First, it suggests we cannot understand the processes that shape and reshape cities by looking only within cities. We must adopt a much wider perspective, one which recognises that cities are shaped by processes from far beyond their boundaries, as well as factors much closer to home. Despite this we must not lose sight of the fact that cities are not the helpless pawns of these processes. These global forces are mediated locally; namely their outcomes are determined by local factors such as the nature of local urban governments, economies and cultures. Cities are shaped by the interplay of local, regional, national and international forces (Healey and Ilbery 1990: 3-6).
