New political geographies: Global civil society and global governance through world city networks

This study is an investigation of network processes associated with globalization to see whether they herald ontological, new, political geographies that challenge the reproduction of modern states through Westphalian processes. Using an interlocking city network model, three world city networks are defined: an inter-state city network with state departments as network-makers, a supra-state city network with UN agencies as network-makers, and a trans-state city network with NGOs as network-makers. These networks are interpreted as representing worldwide spaces of flows for Westphalian, global governance, and new global civil society processes. The inter-state city network is treated as a benchmark against which to compare the two newer global networks. Activity matrices describing the geographies of the network-makers are analysed and the principle components are interpreted as common global locational strategies. It is found that the three city networks exhibit very different spatialities: the inter-state city network is primarily intra-regional and horizontal; the supra-state network is primarily inter-regional and hierarchical; and the trans-state city network is primarily inter-zonal (straddling the ‘North–South divide’). These spatialities are discussed in terms of what they mean for contemporary political geographies.