The Global City

Learning Outcomes

1 explain why globalization is a spatial phenomenon

2 identify the attributes of a global city

3 analyze how cities serve as engines of globalization

Methodologies:

1 Lecture/Discussion

2 Group Activity
Content
1 Why Study Global Cities?

2 Defining Global City

3 Indicators

4 Challenges of Global Cities

5 The Global City and the Poor

Why Study Global Cities? Globalization is a spatial
phenomenon.
• Globalization is spatial because it occurs in
physical spaces.

skyscrapers condominium units

investments
• As all these happen, more poor people are driven out of
city centers to make way for the new developments.
Why Study Global Cities?

• Globalization is spatial because what makes it

move is the fact that it is based in places.
• Cities act on globalization and globalization acts on
cities.
Los Angeles - Tokyo -
the home of main
Hollywood - headquar
movies are ters of
made for global Sony
consumption
In the years to come, more and more people will experience
globalization through cities.

1950 2014

30% of the 54% of the

world lived in world lived in
urban areas. urban areas.

2050

66% of the
world will live in
urban areas.
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This studies globalization through the living environment of a
rapidly increasing number of people.

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 Saskia Sassen Defining Global City

Economic • San Francisco • Growth of

• Home of the Chinese
• New York Economy
most
• London powerful • Shanghai,
internet Beijing,
• Tokyo
companies - Guangzhou --
Hubs of Global Global Facebook, City centers of
finance and Twitter, and trade and
capitalism Google finance
• Home for • 5th largest
world's top stock market
stock in the world
exchanges
 Indicators for Global City

1.Economic
power
•Economic
power largely
determines
which cities are
global. -
Sassen
 Indicators for Global City

2. Market size
 Indicators for Global City

3. Purchasing power of citizens

 Indicators for Global City

4. Size of the middle class

 Indicators for Global City

5. Potential for growth

Singapore

• Considered as Asia's most competitive city because of:

• strong market
• efficiency
• incorruptible government
• livability
• Houses the regional offices of many major global
corporations.
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 Indicators for Global City

6. Centers for authority

The cities that house major international organizations

may also be considered centers of political influence.
• UN Headquarters - New York
• European Union - Brussels
• ASEAN Headquarters - Jakarta
Powerful political hubs may exert influence on their own
countries as well as on international affairs.
• European Central Bank - Frankfurt
• A decision made in one city can, therefore, affect the
political economy of an entire continent and beyond.

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 Centers of higher learning and culture.

• intellectual influence = influence of publishing industry

• Many of the books that people read are published in
New York, London, or Paris.

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 Centers of higher learning and culture.

• Tourists visit Boston because of Harvard University.

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 Centers of higher learning and culture.

• Many Asian teens are moving to Australia because of

the leading English-language Universities.

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 Copenhagen, Denmark

• Small city where one can tour the entire city by bicycle
in 30 mins.
• One of the Culinary capitals of the world.

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 Singapore
• Becoming a cultural hub for the region
• Houses some of the region's top TV stations and new
org (MTV Southeast Asia, Channel News Asia)
• Art galleries and cinemas show paintings from artists
and filmakers from the Philippines and Thailand.

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 Today, global cities become culturally diverse.

• Cuisines from different parts of the world

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Challenges of
Global Cities
Pathologies of a Global City

• Cities can be sustainable because of their density.

• “Ecologists found out that by concentrating their
populations in smaller areas, cities and metros
decrease in human encroachment on natural
habitats.”
 Conclusion

• Global cities are sites and mediums of

globalization.
• They are places that create exciting fusions of culture
and ideas.
• They are places that generate tremendous wealth.
• Sites of great inequality - global servants serve global
entrepreneur
Thank
you ！