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R. Giffinger, G. Haindl, H. Kramar:
"The role of rankings in growing city competition";
Vortrag: EURA-Conference, Learning Cities in a knowledge based society, Mailand (eingeladen); 08.10.2008 - 11.10.2008; in: "EURA-Conference - Learning Cities in a knowledge based society", EURA (Hrg.); (2008).

On the one hand the comparison of cities can support investors in their choice of location, on the other hand it
can be an important guide for the cities to judge their strengths and weaknesses and to define their goals and
strategies for future development. However, there is some evidence that the discussion of city rankings is mainly
concentrated on the final ranks totally neglecting the methods and indicators used.
This paper concentrates on the question how cities cope with the results of national and international city
rankings. It reflects actual experiences with the reaction of local governments and stakeholders on a
comprehensive ranking of selected medium-sized cities in Europe ("Smart Cities")1.Many of the 70 cities, which
were evaluated on the base of empirical regional indicators, however, were strongly interested in the results of
the study: Especially the cities which scored well asked for empirical findings and conclusions in detail as a
welcome support of their promotion activities. Based on these experiences the paper tries to provide an insight
into the way cities react on city rankings and how they try to make use of their results. It deals with the question
whether local governments are willing and able to learn from results in detail and how do they seriously reflect
on the strengths and weaknesses revealed in the study.
Answering these questions the paper concludes in proposals for making city rankings a more significant and
effective instrument for steering economic, social and spatial processes in cities: recommendations for
researchers and analysts dealing with the design and methodology of city rankings on the one hand and for local
governments and stakeholders concerning the reasonable handling of results on the other are formulated.

city ranking, competition, learning governances

http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_167218.pdf