Abstract
The Gauteng City-Region (GCR) forms the economic heartland of South Africa, and the African continent, contributing slightly over a third and a tenth to gross domestic product (GDP), respectively. This area is arguably one of the most economically-active regions on the continent and has been recognized as a global city-region comparable to many of its counterparts worldwide. This chapter aims to explore the city-region’s economic viability and functioning as compared with and in relation to other city-regions by looking at past and current rankings that measure the city-region’s viability and performance as an actor within global financial networks and global capital flows, among others. As an African city well represented in global indices, Johannesburg, a proxy for the GCR in this chapter, is undeniably a global city. While some of the measures have recognized Johannesburg as having global promise, other assessments of the city’s prospects have not been overly favourable. With ambiguities sometimes prevailing on how these measures are calculated, it must be stressed that rankings can be effective or ineffective, depending on what it is that corporates and city governments choose to focus on. When “read correctly, they can be an important tool for cities wanting to strengthen their ability to compete globally. Read incorrectly, they are little more than fodder for civic bragging rights” (Leff and Petersen 2015, p. 3).
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- 1.
The JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle) report (2015, p. 4) uses the following definitions: A city index is a tool that measures performance over time, a city benchmark serves as a standard by which other cities are measured or judged, a city ranking is a straightforward list that does not seek to utilize a replicable methodology, and a city rating is the use of a point scale to assess city performance.
- 2.
Urban scholars remain divided on whether the terms global city and world city are interchangeable, or whether there is a distinct difference. Saskia Sassen (1991) believes that there is a difference. To her, all cities are world cities, but only a few are global, depending on their function and positioning in the global economy. John Friedmann (1986) does not make any such distinction – he refers to cities with increased global function as world cities. For the purposes of this study, the terms global city and world city will be used interchangeably, drawing no difference between the two.
- 3.
Fifteen southern African countries make up the Southern African Development Community (SADC). These are; Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (http://www.sadc.int/member-states/).
- 4.
For a review of the detailed compendium of 150 city-based measures, see JLL 2013, pp. 8–17.
- 5.
PwC collects data from three main sources: global multilateral development organizations (e.g. the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund); national statistics organizations (e.g., UK National Statistics and the US Census Bureau); and various commercial data providers (PwC 2015b).
- 6.
Arcadis was founded in the Netherlands as the Association for Wasteland Redevelopment, promoting agricultural development of Dutch heather lands (www.arcadis.com).
- 7.
The various sub-indices used by the Good City Index are: Hub for progress (improvements to civic life); Civic engagement (engaging with citizens); Street life (support and creation of vibrant street life); Defining moments (reaction in times of crisis); Connectivity (connections between people in the city); Green life (promoted in urban environments); Diversity (encouraging multiculturalism); and Work/Life balance (optimum balance between the two). No weighting is provided for understanding the contributions of the various sub-indices to the overall index.
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Cheruiyot, K., Desai, A., Lengaram, E. (2018). Assessing the Gauteng City-Region’s Global Presence and Positioning Through Current Global-City Measures. In: Cheruiyot, K. (eds) The Changing Space Economy of City-Regions. GeoJournal Library(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67483-4_3
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