City networks can either refer to a membership organization city leaders join to connect their city to other municipalities, or to a geographical concept used to describe inter-connectivity of cities on different levels (trade, railways, culture etc.).

City networks in international cooperation

In the perspective of international cooperation, the term "city network" refers to a membership organization that cities join either to take part to specific projects, to be represented by geographical specificity, or to assert political commitments. One of the main reasons why cities join a city network is to learn good practices from peer cities that have similar characteristics and face comparable challenges (

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

, urban

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

, water and

sanitation Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation syste ...

smart city A smart city is a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods and sensors to collect specific data. Information gained from that data is used to manage assets, resources and services efficiently; in retur ...

, etc.).

City networks as a geographical concept

City networks are a geographical concept studying connections between

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

by placing the cities as nodes on a network. In modern conceptions of cities, these networks play an important role in understanding the nature of cities. City networks can identify physical connections to other places, such as

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface f ...

s, scheduled flights, or telecommunication networks, typically done using

graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of '' graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conn ...

. City networks also exist in immaterial form, such as trade, global

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

markets Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...

, migration,

cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.T ...

links, shared social spaces or shared

histories Histories or, in Latin, Historiae may refer to: * the plural of history * ''Histories'' (Herodotus), by Herodotus * ''The Histories'', by Timaeus * ''The Histories'' (Polybius), by Polybius * ''Histories'' by Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust), ...

. There are also networks of

religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

nature, in particular through

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

. The city itself is then regarded as the node where different networks run together. Some urban thinkers have argued that cities can only be understood if the context of the city's connections is understood. It has been argued that city networks are a key ingredient of what defines a city, along with the number of people (density) and the particular way of life in cities.

References

*Taylor, P. J. (2001), Specification of the World City Network. Geographical Analysis, 33: 181-194. {{DEFAULTSORT:City Network City Networks Social networks Urban studies and planning terminology