Urban Competitiveness Concept and Levels of Analysis

Abstract

The article deals with the importance of the issue of urban competitiveness in the context of global processes
of power rescaling. Different interpretations of the concept of urban competitiveness, its key aspects as
well as the importance of raising the competitiveness of cities for the socio-economical development of the city
of a country are discussed in the article as well. In order to increase the competitiveness of a city, it is crucial to
correctly identify the markets of the competition as well as key factors influencing the competitiveness. Different
authors identify different factors and there is no universally accepted classification of the factors: it ranges
from “internal” and “external”, “economic” and “strategic”, “static” and “dynamic” to “given” and “acquired”.
Therefore the article pays a strong attention to the analysis of levels and markets for urban competition and the
factors determining urban competitiveness.