Role of advanced producer services shaping globalization processes in a post-industrial region : the case of the Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolis

Abstract

The paper discusses the emergence of a new regional network of connectivities in the area of advanced producer services in a formerly industrial region in southern Poland. Changes in the region’s job market and the influx of foreign firm centers suggest the presence of globalization processes in the economy. Advanced producer service companies tend to cluster around the regional capital of Katowice and use the city as a gateway to other parts of the studied region. This process leads to the replacement of jobs characterized by lower qualifications with jobs requiring more advanced knowledge, new technologies, and a variety of forms of innovation. International economic networks play an increasingly large role in the entrenchment of economic globalization in the Górnos´la˛sko-Zagłebiowska Metropolis, which has helped the city join other Polish cities in the classification of the World Cities Research Network.