Beyond the metropolis: new employment centers and historic administrative cities in the Madrid global city region

• Published in: Urban geography Vol. 35; no. 6; pp. 889 - 915
• Main Authors: Romero, Vicente, Solís, Eloy, De Ureña, José M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Silver Spring, MD Routledge 01-09-2014; Winston; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Administrative change; advanced producer services; Bgi / Prodig; Business services; Castilla-León. Castilla-la Mancha. Madrid. Extremadura; Cities; city regions; Decentralization; edge cities; Employment; Europe; global cities; Globalization; Information society; knowledge-intensive business services; Landscape; Madrid; Metropolis; Proximity; Realignment; Spain; Specialization; Suburbanization; The Iberian peninsula; Transformation; Urban design; Urban development; Community of Madrid; Spain; Proximity; Accessibility; Employment; World city; Distance from city centre; Urbanization; Knowledge economy; Producer services
• ISSN: 0272-3638; 1938-2847
• DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2014.939538

Globalization is constituted not only through interurban networks of global city regions, but also by intraurban linkages within city regions. In this article, we use the Madrid city region as a case study to analyze the emergence of new "globalization arenas"-dense agglomeration nodes of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBSs)-on the outskirts of large metropolises (METs). We focus on two distinct types of centers. New employment centers (NECs) are produced by intrametropolitan suburbanization and realignment of preexisting small agglomerations. Historic administrative cities (HACs) are created by suprametropolitan scale processes remaking historically autonomous centers beyond the MET, which are only now being articulated in metropolitan transformation. We use statistical, cartographic, and econometric techniques to analyze proximity and economic base characteristics of NECs and HACs. As KIBSs continue to evolve in patterns of decentralized concentration, HACs are becoming more important KIBS nodes amidst complex landscapes of functional specialization and repositioning.