Unpacking the advanced producer services complex in world cities: Charting professional networks, localisation economies and markets

• Published in: Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Scotland), 2021-05, Vol.58 (6), p.1286-1302
• Main Authors: Bassens, David, Gutierrez, Laura, Hendrikse, Reijer, Lambert, Deborah, Waiengnier, Maëlys
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accounting; Advanced producer services; Attention; Audits; Cities; Communications technology; Financial services; Global cities; Globalization; Information technology; Legal services; Localization; Mapping; Producer services; Professionals; Social networks; Social organization; Telecommunications; Urban areas
• ISSN: 0042-0980; 1360-063X
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098020908715

Limited empirical evidence in support of world-city formation has been the ‘dirty little secret’ of the eponymous research area. Since the late 1990s, inspired by Sassen’s account of The Global City, the field focused on advanced producer services (APS) firms as primary actors in world-city formation. While generating robust insights into the shifting geographies of world cities, empirical attention has mostly focused on mapping inter-urban world city networks formed by APS firms. Despite a rich literature on APS clusters, the degree to which specific intra-urban agglomerations and their inter-firm connections shape up has received little systematic attention. Based on a company survey in Brussels (Belgium), our study charts interactions between APS professionals to better understand the geographies, quality and intensity of their encounters. Our findings reveal that the Brussels-based APS cluster constitutes a hybrid of an industrial complex with stable formal ties and a social network based on informal exchange. Financial services assume a central position in what might be called ‘a para-financial services complex’, revealing close ties with legal services, accountancy and audit, and ICT. Geographically, we find that the APS complex depends on fine-grained localisation economies, which allow a small share of APS professionals to service both domestic and international clients. We conclude that APS actors in Brussels exhibit a strong domestic anchoring, indicative of the continued relevance of world cities as national financial centres amidst financial globalisation. 支持全球城市形成的有限经验证据一直是同名研究领域的“肮脏的小秘密”。自20世纪90年代末以来，受萨森 (Sassen)《全球城市》(The Global City) 论述的启发，该领域聚焦于作为全球城市形成的主要参与者的先进生产服务 (APS) 机构。实证研究产生了对不断变化的全球城市地理的深入见解，但其关注的重点主要是绘制由APS机构形成的全球城市间网络。尽管存在大量关于APS集群的文献，但具体的城市内部集聚及其企业间联系的形成程度却很少受到系统的关注。基于在比利时布鲁塞尔开展的一项公司调查，我们的研究绘制了APS专业人员之间的互动图，以更好地了解他们相互接触的地理位置、质量和强度。我们的研究结果表明，布鲁塞尔的APS集群是一个具有稳定的正式联系的工业综合体和一个基于非正式交换的社会网络的混合体。金融服务在可称为“类金融服务综合体”中占据核心地位，显示出与法律服务、会计和审计以及信通技术的密切联系。从地理上来说，我们发现APS综合体依赖精细的本地化经济，这样的经济允许一小部分APS专业人员同时为国内和国际客户服务。我们的结论是，布鲁塞尔的APS参与者展现了很强的国内根基，这表明在金融全球化中，全球城市作为国家金融中心的持续相关性。