ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part explores relational properties of cities and the conceptual, methodological, and empirical challenges of grasping global urban connectivity across scales, contexts, and historical periods. The internal conditions of individual urban regions are shaped by their roles in the global hierarchy of economic activities. The external relationships of cities have been conditioned by their capacities to articulate wider networks of global flows. The part focuses on global urban connectivity has not only inspired research on inter-urban networks, but has also stimulated a reimagination of the global city region. The notion of mobility explicitly positions itself vis-a-vis territoriality in the urban network. The mobilities approach conceptualizes “the social content or movements or people as objects from place to place at various scales and the immobilities and moorings that underpin and challenge these dynamics”.
