Roberto Diez Pisonero

The world urban system from a multifunctional and multiscalar perspective: a gridded cartogram as a model of spatial representation

ABSTRACT This paper aims to show the current spatial organization that characterizes world urban system from a multifunctional and multiscalar perspective. Methodology, the assessment of the urban system was economic in nature traditionally, taking into consideration some of the most important events, such as transnational corporations, financial flows and advanced services, among others. However, it is now more common to see those approaches that interpret globalization from a more holistic perspective, where many evidences have a place: on the one hand, cultural services because of the development and consolidation of the ‘cultural economy’, ‘consumption society’ and leisure time; on the other hand, air transportation as statistic parameter of global air flows in the presence of the new mobilities paradigm. In addition to these functional approaches, the result of the analysis seeks to describe a world urban system from a scalar perspective. It means that the goal is not only to determine the major cities, but those other ones that undergo parallel processes of globalization with respect to the global cities, characterized by their more functional specialization. World urban system is mapped using a gridded cartogram which shows its unbalanced and hierarchical organization.ABSTRACTThis paper aims to show the current spatial organization that characterizes world urban system from a multifunctional and multiscalar perspective. Methodology, the assessment of the urban system was economic in nature traditionally, taking into consideration some of the most important events, such as transnational corporations, financial flows and advanced services, among others. However, it is now more common to see those approaches that interpret globalization from a more holistic perspective, where many evidences have a place: on the one hand, cultural services because of the development and consolidation of the ‘cultural economy’, ‘consumption society’ and leisure time; on the other hand, air transportation as statistic parameter of global air flows in the presence of the new mobilities paradigm. In addition to these functional approaches, the result of the analysis seeks to describe a world urban system from a scalar perspective. It means that the goal is not only to determine the major citie...

Los megaeventos: indicadores del archipiélago urbano mundial desde una perspectiva cultural basada en el consumo de eventos de ocio

In the present, cities do not only compete to attract economic flows, but also particular forms of cultural capital (symbols, images, experiences) that emphasize the identity and cosmopolitan value of these. Events and cultural festivals that are often unique city-marketing strategies can also be used as indicators in statistical analyses to assess the global urban system from the cultural perspective that is contextualized in todays consumer society. Following a quantitative methodology that includes various statistical analyses, the results confirm two important facts: On the one hand, the need to study the global urban system from a multidimensional perspective, beyond economic criteria; on the other hand, the need to observe not only the so-called global cities, widely identified in the scientific literature, but also in those secondary cities that are positioned on the global stage through these events.