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Rüdiger Robert

Municipalities and business: global players

Globalization signifies a fundamentally new system of spatial order and a progressive shift of responsibilities and emphasis between the public and private sectors. Against this backdrop, the article asks whether municipalities still have any leverage for independent activity and decision-making against major international corporations. The article concludes that the interests of cities and city regions are by no means principally subordinate to those of global players. Rather, municipalities and transnational companies alike are subject to the same process of global transformation. This affinity leads to common interests as well as conflicts, despite the distance remaining between local government and the private sector. Municipalities are called to collaborate with global players whenever their interests overlap. This involves consciously establishing innovation networks which permit the formation of cluster-specific local advantages in the context of world-wide competition.

Deutsche Zeitschrift für Kommunalwissenschaften, Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik

Print ISSN: 1617-8203
Volume: 44, 07/2005

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