ABSTRACT
Urban areas can compete for those key control and command functions in high finance and government that tend, by their very nature, to be highly centralized while embodying immense power over all manner of activities and spaces. Cities can compete to become centres of finance capital, of information gathering and control, of government decision-making. Competition of this sort calls for a certain strategy of infrastructural provision. Efficiency and centrality within a worldwide network of transport and communications is vital, and that means heavy public investment in airports, rapid transit, communication systems, and the like. The provision of adequate office space and linkages depends upon a public-private coalition of property developers, financiers, and public interests capable of responding to and anticipating needs. Assembling a wide range of supporting services, particularly those that gather and process information rapidly, calls for other kinds of investments, while the specific skills requirements of such activities put a premium on urban centres with certain kinds of educational provision (business and law schools, computer training facilities, and so forth).
