Reconnecting Cities and Nations: Forging Divergent Paths in Global Technology Governance
2026-07-14
As cities play increasingly visible roles in international relations and global governance, scholars have proposed multiple explanations for variation in their engagement and influence. This study examines a relatively understudied yet crucial factor: vertical coordination between cities and national governments. Through a structured-focus case comparison of four cities (San Francisco, Austin, Shanghai, and Shenzhen), it traces each city’s representation in governance networks, reputation-building efforts, and mobilization of its tangible and intangible resources across two contrasting approaches to coordination by the United States and China. The findings reveal that coordination functions as a pathway-structuring variable that determines the sequence and logic through which cities establish their presence and argue for their legitimacy. Strongly coordinated cases convert national legitimacy into flagship representational opportunities and sustained reputational gains; less coordinated cases generate visibility through local ecosystems but lack the structural capacity to translate reputational capital into norm-setting roles. These insights contribute to polycentric governance studies, advance scholarship on city diplomacy, and offer practical insights for the design of coordination frameworks in an era of growing urban involvement in global affairs.