Lesson 8 – The Global City

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If you are given a chance to

go or stay permanently to
another country, where
would you go?

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Why Study Global Cities ?
• Globalization is spatial because it occurs in global
spaces.

• Can be seen when foreign investments and capital move

through a city, and when companies build skyscrapers.

• People who work in these businesses start to purchase or

rent high-rise condominium units and better houses.

• More poor people are driven out of city centers to make

new developments.

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Why Study Global Cities ?
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In the coming years, more and more people

will experience globalization.

In the 1950, 30% of the world lives in urban

areas
2014, the number increased to 54%

By 2050, estimated - global cities will increase

to 66%

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Defining global city

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Defining global city
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Saskia Sassen

• Popularized the term “global

city”

• In the 1990s, her criteria for what

constitutes a global city is
primarily economic.

• New York, London, and TokyoEDUCATION FOR A FAST CHANGING WORLD

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Homes of the world's top stock exchange

• New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

• Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE)

• Nikkei

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Recent commentators have expanded

the criteria Sassen used

▪ Considers Los Angeles, a movie

making mecca and can now rival New
York's cultural influence

▪ San Francisco, home of the most

powerful internet companies -
Facebook, Twitter, and Google

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•Others consider something “global” > great

living places like Sydney, Australia.

•Defining a global city is difficult, a better

question to ask whether a city is global or not is
“In what ways they are global cities?”
“To what extent are they global?”

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Indicators for Globality

1. Economic Power

Sassen remains New York has the largest China as the

correct in saying that stock market manufacturing
economic power center of the
largely determines Tokyo houses are more
which cities are corporate headquarters world
global.

Economic opportunities also makes it attractive

to the talents from across the world.

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To measure the economic competitiveness, the

Economic Intelligence Unit has added other criteria
like:

✔ market size

✔ purchasing power of the citizens

✔ size of the middle class

✔ potential for growth

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2. Authority

• Washington D.C. seat of the American State

Power
• Canberra, a sleepy town but Australia’s political
capital

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Authority
Cities that house major international
organizations also be considered as centers of
political influence

United Nations (New York)

European Union (Brussels)
ASEAN (Jakarta)

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3. Higher Learning and Culture

A city's intellectual influence can be seen through
the influence of its publishing industries

• New York, London, Paris

• New York Times
• Harvard University in Boston

AUSTRALIA'S THIRD LARGEST EXPORTS EDUCATION

In 2015, the Australian government reported that it made as

much as 19.2 billion Australian dollars ( roughly 14 billion US
dollars).
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Los Angeles, center of American Film Industry.

Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, one of the culinary capitals

of the world, birthplace of New Nordic cuisine.

Singapore, becoming a cultural hub of Southeast Asia.

Global cities are now more culturally diverse, an example is

having different type of cuisines from different parts of the
world in its vicinity.

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The Challenges of Global Cities
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Global cities conjured There are also

up images of undersides like their
fast-paced, exciting, place is a great sites
cosmopolitan lifestyles of inequality, poverty
but such descriptions and violence. Like
are lacking. how globalization
works, global cities
also have winners
and losers.

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Pathologies of the global cities based on the research of Chicago
Council on Global Affairs

Cities can be sustainable because of their density.

“Ecologists have found that by concentrating their populations in

smaller areas, cities and metros decrease human encroachment
on natural habitats. Denser settlement patterns yield energy
savings; apartment buildings, for example, are more efficient to
heat and cool than detached suburban houses.”

New Yorkers' low capita per carbon footprint is because of its train
system.
Singapore and Tokyo also have low per capita carbon footprints.

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Los Angeles are urban sprawls, with massive freeways that
force residents to spend money on cars and gas.

Manila, Bangkok, and Mumbai are dense however the lack of

public transportation, and government's inability to regulate the
car industries have made them extremely polluted.

Sheer size of city populations across the world, urban areas

consume the most of world's energy.

Cities only cover 2% of the world's landmass but consumes

78% of global energy.

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How to resolve?

e.g. Vertical farming

Solar energy

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The Global City and the Poor
• Economic globalization > led > massive inequality - more
pronounced in cities.

• e.g. Manila, it is common to find gleaming buildings,

alongside massive shantytowns. This duality may even be
seen in rich, urban cities.

• Gentrification - driving out the poor in favor of the newer,

wealthier residents.

• Banlieue (bänˈlyo͞o)- Poor Muslims that are forced out of

Paris and have clustered around ethnic enclaves.
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• The middle class is also thinning out.

• Globalization creates high-income jobs and

this creates a demand for unskilled labor force.

• Middle-income jobs are moving to other

countries.

• Hollowing out of the middle class on global

cities has heightened the inequality among
them.
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“A large global city may

thus be paradise for
some but a purgatory for
others.”

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 Activity 3. (Considered as your 2nd quiz)
Draw your perception of a global city.
30 points
(Guide questions)
1. What is a global City?
2. What are the positive and negative effects of
living in a global city?
3. How would you classify a global city?

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Thank you.

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