GaWC Associate Director (City Network Analysis)

Ben Derudder joined GaWC in 2002. In his GaWC-related research, he has broadly focused on (1) the role of transport and information technology infrastructures in world city network-formation, and (2) the potential of quantitative techniques derived from (social) network analysis to examine GaWC's inter-city datasets. This research is recorded in a number of papers in major journals, including Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Urban Studies, Regional Studies, Journal of Transport Geography, and Environment and Planning A/B. He has also co-edited a number of volumes on globalized urbanization, including Cities in Globalization (Routledge, 2005), Global Urban Analysis: A Study of Cities in Globalization (Earthscan, 2010), and the International Handbook of Globalization and World Cities (Edward Elgar, 2012). His most recent research focuses on (1) the potential of alternative network specifications of the world city network, and (2) modelling change and co-evolution in the world city network.

Ben has worked with the World Bank and economic development agencies in Abu Dhabi, Chengdu, Dublin, Milan and Sydney. Most of this work focuses on how transport and infrastructure networks facilitate, and are facilitated by, transnational economic interactions between cities. In addition, he has been involved in benchmarking a city within the world city network so as to ensure urban policy incorporates understanding global trends.

Ben Derudder is Professor of Human Geography in the Department of Geography at Ghent University (Belgium). He has (co-)edited 4 books on world city network-formation, and published several scientific papers on this topic in key academic journals. During the period 2011-2014, he was a Marie Curie Research Fellow, associated with Monash University in Australia.