Ranking Cities According to Their Fundamental Power: A Comparison Among Results of Different Methods of Linear Ordering

Abstract City managers search for new concepts of city development in order to satisfy growing demands and manage risk. The research assumes that city management requires the combination of ideas of sustainable development, a smart city and resilience. These three concepts are the components of the so-called “Fundamental Power of the City”. The aim of this paper is to present and test the operationalization of the new hybrid approach to city development through the index named the Fundamental Power of the City Index which includes 80 variables. The research applies six linear ordering methods to investigate the functionality of the Index. These are used to investigate each city’s performance and compare it with other cities by ranking them according to a chosen measure. The research considers 18 voivodship capital cities of Poland. The research draws attention to different approaches of development assessment although analysis shows that most linear ordering methods produce similar rankings. Investigation shows that human and social capital factors contribute to high positions in the ranking which is consistent with the development strategies formulated by the leading cities. The results of the analysis also identify the most urgent problems of the municipalities. The research confirms that the Fundamental Power of the City concept, by including the requirements for sustainable, smart and resilient cities, fills the gaps between them and provides a holistic approach to city management.