Behind the rising periphery: Divergent paths in the World City Network

This study explores the paths of cities in the world city network (WCN) that are located outside the traditional core states of the capitalist world-economy. Using two decades of time-series data, it develops a framework for mapping WCN paths, examines the distribution of non-core cities across the paths, and proposes geographical explanations for their divergent paths. Results show that, although a few non-core cities have achieved notable global ascents which have attracted most of our attention, stabilisation within the hierarchy is just as prevalent as upward advancement, and incremental progress at the lower tiers is far more common than major ascents. These divergences follow clear world-regional patterns: Pacific Asia, West Asia, and South Asia are distinguished from other parts of the less developed world by having a significant number of cities with global capability, none of which experienced downward mobility. Compared with two decades ago, these cities now host not just more and more influential offices of Western advanced producer service (APS) firms, reflecting growing investment opportunities there, but also local APS firms that have now become global leaders, reflecting these regions’ rising positions in the hierarchy of global capitalism. These results suggest that a city’s position in the WCN is closely tied to the global positioning of their home region, an association long obscured by the relative stability of Western dominance in the global economy which the (re)rising Asia now disrupts.