This article reviews different city case studies in terms of their positioning in the global city system. In the empirical section there is a comparative analysis of 37 urban experiences across two periods of time: 1980-1995 which corresponds to the industrial transition, and 1995-2005 which relates to the post-industrial stage. The article concludes that actions relating to urban quality of and urban marketing are becoming more important than others more related to strategic economic planning. Furthermore actions of a more material nature are giving way to more immaterial ones. As such, a transition process can be observed from a model based on tangible elementos of the city towards one more concerned with the recovery of more intangible assets.