CHALLENGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN URBAN RANKING SYSTEM: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
CHALLENGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN URBAN RANKING SYSTEM: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Summary/Abstract: Urban ranking is of great importance as a technique to evaluate cities and urban management systems. It applies various indicators and criteria to assess economic and social aspects, governance characteristics, and the degree of urban development. The current city ranking systems have become a prosperous industry for private companies, academic institutions, and other relevant organizations, which experience many challenges regarding their contents and procedure. In this case, a knowledge of the corresponding strengths and weaknesses is required for having a significant level of outcomes. In this regard, the present study aims to make a critical review of the performance of urban ranking systems by interviewing experienced university professors and analyzing the qualitative data with the MAXQDA software to identify the challenges and critiques of these systems. According to the findings, the shortcomings of urban ranking can be classified in several areas including a) identifying indicators and criteria, b) data gathering, c) adopting a methodology to select cities, and d) evaluation, interpretation, analysis, and final presentation of the results. Moreover, the research shows that, through certain actions, it is possible to turn the critiques on urban ranking into advantages. This includes addressing the questions which target the best ranking indicators to choose, evaluating the method of weighing indicators to adopt the best one for analyzing and interpreting them, choosing the best method of selecting cities, and finding a reliable source of data gathering. Finally, several suggestions are made to improve the performance of urban ranking systems.

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