New Urban Management: Attracting Value Flows to Branded Hubs (Palgrave 2015)

New Urban Management: Attracting Value Flows to Branded Hubs (Palgrave, 2015) discusses the logic of economic flows, which requires paradigm shift in urban management. The need for such an approach lies in increased fluidity in economic life, which has created new kind of space with its own logic, the space of flows. The emergence of such an economic condition has intensified global intercity competition, as metropolitan governments’ ability to maintain their economic vitality depends on their ability to attract flows of values through their innovation milieus, urban amenities and other assets. Ability to attract global flows in turn depends less and less on location-specific physical assets and increasingly on collective symbolic capital. This brings us to the core issue of this book: how to utilise flow analysis in brand-oriented economic development policy? This book conceptualises global flows of values and on that basis shows how such knowledge can be used to smarten up brand-oriented economic development policy.

Below is a short description of the chapters of the book. 

1 Introduction 

It is a truism to say that globalisation conditions urban development everywhere in the world. But do we know what kinds of changes they actually impose on cities? Discussion in this chapter aims to clarify one special aspect of globalisation, the increased fluidity in economic life, which urges local governments to reconsider the premises of their economic development policy. One new direction in this respect is emerging ‘flow paradigm’, which provides conceptual tools to understand the current economic reality and its dynamics. Ability to attract global flows depends less and less on hard factors of production and more and more on collective symbolic capital. Hence the relevance of city branding in global competition between cities. Such observations boil down to the idea of new urban management that focuses on attracting flows of values, such as capital, technological know-how, innovative firms, creative people and tourism consumption, to branded hubs in order to guarantee their wealth and economic resilience. 

2 Process view of local economy 

The promotion of local economic development takes place in an increasingly fluid economic environment. This is why local governments benefit from better self-understanding of their nature as hubs of flows or ‘dissipative structures’, which opens up a view of city’s interaction with the outside world. This chapter builds a picture of local economy within such a framework. Discussion starts from approaches to flows and continues with flow-based view of urban community and economy. It conceptualises local economic processes and builds ideal models of growing and declining city, which illustrate the idea of city as a dissipative structure. Lastly, this section discusses the implications of such a view to local economic development policy. 

3 Flows of people, cultures and symbols 

This section discusses the aspects of urban dissipative structure that go beyond material flows. Discussion starts with a brief outlook of migration flows. Next topic is the political economy of urban symbolism followed by discussion of economies of signs and of the cultural landscapes of late modernity. The figures whose theorisations are in focus include Manuel Castells, Scott Lash, John Urry and Arjun Appadurai. This chapter provides not only a glance at space of flows and similar concepts but also a selective introduction to the sociological side of flow analysis. 

4 Economic frameworks for flow analysis 

This chapter outlines the idea of flows in terms of economic taxonomies and categorisations. It provides brief description of circular flow models, T-account analyses (e.g. GDP), industry and cluster classifications, trade and capital flow analyses (especially FDIs) and descriptions of flows of goods and materials. The idea is to popularise the approaches and conceptualisations of flows on the basis of the rudimentary concepts and models in mainstream economics. Beside this, this chapter discusses briefly interregional flow analysis developed by Walter Isard and the new geography of flows as presented within GaWC research network led by Peter J. Taylor. This section provides thus conceptual tools needed to build a clear picture of flows that have economic value. 

5 Flow analysis in urban management 

In this chapter an economic flow analysis is built to concretise the picture of a city as an economic dissipative structure with in and out flows of consumption and production. Discussion is divided into three themes according to Attractors-Flows-Dynamics scheme: attraction factors, economic flows and dynamics of specific flows. As the types of flows are numerous and each have a dynamics of its own, this section discusses only selected types of flows as representative examples of the variety of economic flow dynamics. They are grouped into two broad categories, flows of business and people. Such flow analysis can be used by urban governments in managing their economic processes and directing development efforts to actions that maximise their benefits in the increasingly fluid economic environment.

6 Attraction management of branded hubs 

This chapter starts by linking localities with global economy using the scheme known as City Attraction Hypothesis. It discusses the attraction-oriented urban  development in the context of global intercity competition. Rest of the discussion takes a managerial view on flow analysis and related urban attraction management. If the economy is increasingly fluid, how are we suppose to promote urban economic development? What are the preconditions of the urban development vis-à-vis global space of flows? This section points to the increased importance of urban symbolism and its potential to improve cities’ ability to attract factors of production and consumption from the global flows. This discussion culminates in brand management as an aid to attraction management with a focus on mass, arena, institution and media branding. 

7 Concluding remarks 

This book provides a picture of new urban management. It is ‘new’ in the sense that the idea of urban management is built on a new premise, i.e. on cities’ need to cope with increasingly fluid economy. New urban management provides tools to understand the types and dynamics of flows of values and, as another side of the picture, tools to understand the nature of an urban community as a hub, including its assets and attraction factors. The global competition is increasingly symbolic. Value flows cannot be attracted by infrastructures or amenities alone but by collective symbolic capital. This is why city branding is valuable method to any city that has or aspires to have important role in some industries or niches in the global economy. The new urban management is, thus, a doctrine and practice that focuses on attracting flows of values, such as capital, technological know-how, innovative firms, creative people and tourism consumption, to branded cities in the purpose of guaranteeing resilient vitality and wealth through the maintenance and development of city’s transformative capacity. Taming the flows, in turn, is the key to cities future role as the primary loci of global solidarity.

Should you be interested in reading more, the book will be available in Palgrave's website.