WEEK 8: Global City
2nd Semester I S.Y.
GECC2022-2023
108: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
Instructor: Mr. Isidrian Paolo S. Montes
Defining Global Cities
Sociologist Saskia Sassen popularized the term
“global city” in the 1990’s. Her work, The Global
City: New York, London, Tokyo (1991) has shaped
the concepts and methods that other theorists have
used to analyze the role of cities and their networks
in the contemporary world. Key to Sassen's concept
of the global city is an emphasis on the flow of
information and capital. Cities are major nodes in
the interconnected systems of information and
money, and the wealth that they capture is
intimately related to the specialized businesses
that facilitate those flows -- financial institutions,
consulting firms, accounting firms, law firms, and
media organizations. Sassen points out that these
flows are no longer tightly bound to national
boundaries and systems of regulation; so, the
dynamics of the global city are dramatically different
than those of the great cities of the nineteenth
century.
Likewise, global cities serve as engines and place
where globalization takes place where highly
globalized and competitive metropolitan economies
with the deepest and most settled concentrations of
firms, capitals, and talent are located. The “Big Six”
includes the traditional “super cities” of London,
New York, Paris, and Tokyo, joined by the most
recent global urbanized cities of Hong Kong and
Singapore.
Sassen mentioned some attributes of global cities. To
sum up the indicators of global cities of Sassen, we
could remember the acronym:
3 Power
 Economic Power
 Political Power
 Cultural Power.
Economic power is the foremost characteristic of
global cities as Sassen strongly emphasizes that
economic power largely determines which cities are
global. Like for example, New York may have the
largest stock market in the world, but Tokyo houses
the greatest number of corporate headquarters (613
company headquarters as against 217 in New
York, its closest competitor). Shanghai may have a
smaller stock market compared to New York and
Tokyo but plays a critical role in the global
economic supply chain ever since China has become
the manufacturing center of the world.
Global cities are also seats of political power and
center of authority. Washington D.C may not
be as wealthy as of New York, but it is the seat
of the American state of power. Likewise, the
city was known all over the world for its major
landmarks such as the White House, the
Capitol Building (Congress), the Supreme
Court, the Lincoln Memorial, and the
Washington Monument. Similarly, the cities
that house the major international organizations
may also be considered centers of political
influence. The perfect example of this are the
United Nations in New York and the European
Union in Brussels. A decision made in this city
can, therefore, affect the political economy of
an entire continent and beyond.
Finally, global cities are centers of higher
learning and culture. A lot of publishing
industries, well known universities, and film
industries are found in these cities. The cultural
power of global cities today, becomes globally
diverse. Los Angeles is the center of the
American film industry. Universities such as
the National University in Singapore, Ecole
Polytechnique in Paris, and Boston’s
University of Montreal are known as the
leading universities in the world for their
strongest research development both in
academe and in field of science and
technology.
Aside from the essential traits of a global city,
Sassen identifies four key functions of the global
city:
1) they are highly concentrated command posts in
the organization of the world economy.
2) they are key locations for finances and specialized
service firms providing “producer services”
(professional and corporate services, i.e., services
inputs for TNCs), to the leading global firms.
3) they are sites for the production and innovation of
these producer services and headquarters for
producer-service firms.
4) they are markets for the products and innovations
produced and in these cities.
P a g e 1 | Week 8
 WEEK 2: “GLOBAL CITY”
The Challenges of Global City
The UN estimates that 55% of the global
population lives in urban areas – a figure that is
projected to rise to 68% by 2050. With a few
exceptions, cities are expected to become
bigger and more numerous.
As urbanization speeds up, particularly in
Asian and African countries, here are five of
the biggest challenges confronting the future of
cities.
1. Environmental threats
Rapid urbanization, which strains basic
infrastructure, coupled with more frequent and
extreme weather events linked to global climate
change is exacerbating the impact of environmental
threats. Common environmental threats include
flooding, tropical cyclones to which coastal cities are
particularly vulnerable, heat waves and epidemics.
Owing to the physical and population density of
cities, such threats often result in both devastating
financial loss and deaths. Making cities more
resilient against these environmental threats is one of
the biggest challenges faced by city authorities and
requires urgent attention.
2. Resources
• Cities need resources such as water, food, and energy
to be viable. Urban sprawl reduces available
water catchment areas, agricultural lands and
increases demand for energy. While better
application of technology can boost
agricultural productivity and ensure more
efficient transmission of electricity, many cities
will continue to struggle to provide these
resources to an ever-growing urban population.
Beyond these basic requirements, haphazard
growth will see the reduction of green spaces
within cities, negatively affecting livability. As
fresh water becomes scarce and fertile lands
diminish, food prices may escalate, hitting the
poorest hardest.
3. Inequality
• When it comes to both the provision of basic
resources and resilience against environmental
threats, the forecast is uneven for different
groups of urban inhabitants. As the number of
urban super-rich grows, many cities will also
see increased numbers of urban poor.
The widening gap between the haves and have-
nots will be accentuated in the megacities of
the future. Such inequalities, when left
unchecked, will destabilize society, and upend
any benefits of urban development. There is a
critical need for policymakers to ensure that the
fruits of progress are shared equitably.
4. Technology
Technology will be increasingly used in the
development and running of cities of the
future. Smart planning used in Singapore can
harness solar energy for use in housing estates
and create man-made wetlands for ecological
balance. Smart mobility technology can
alleviate traffic gridlocks which plague many
cities. The use of environmental technologies
which can cool buildings more efficiently or
run vehicles that are less polluting will also
lead to better future cities. Installing sensors in
the homes of ageing seniors living alone can
connect them to the community and summon
help when they are unwell or hurt.
5. Governance
Future cities offer immense possibilities to enrich the
lives of their inhabitants even as the challenges are
stark. To make the best out of inevitable
urbanization, good governance is imperative. Cities
will increase in size and their populations will
become more diverse. Governing these cities will,
therefore, be progressively complex and require the
most dedicated of minds. Increasingly, cities around
the world are learning about the best governance and
planning practices from one another, even as they
remain accountable to their respective national
governments. The broad goals of urban governance
should address issues of equity, livability, and
sustainability in cities of the future.
QUALIFICATIONS OF A GLOBAL CITY
There are several ways in which a city can be
considered as a global city. Firstly, a city should
have a combination of powerful, strong, and
unique culture, style, and history. This is because
culture is one of important businesses in a city that
provides many tourist attractions. Rome for instance,
has been very powerful and influential in the
development of world culture. It is one of the richest
Page 2 | Week 8
 WEEK 2: “GLOBAL CITY”

and dynamic cities in Europe. During the previous
years, cultures in Rome have been contained within
its borders. However, as the rate of communication
increases due to globalization, the culture in Rome is
now rapidly mixed on a global scale. A culture may
not necessarily mean the traditions and values in that
city but also the art, food and architecture. Moreover,
culture has become an economic machine whereby it
has a variety of activities through its traditional and
modern appeal like the Roman Catholic Church in
Rome (Taylor, 2004: p57). In addition, Rome
actually influences the world on the subjects of
culture, religion and architecture and it is worldwide
known as a center of arts. Due to the city’s
importance and influence in culture and religion, it
has been nicknames as the Eternal City of the world
(Taylor, 2004: p57). Most importantly fact about
Rome is that it is “the main center of pilgrimage in
the Christian community” (Taylor, 2004: 56p).
Because of the presence of the first Roman Catholic,
it has made it to be an influential city since many
people especially Christians meet in that area during
Easter season to experience and enjoy the traditional
procession of the pope. Additionally, for a city to
become global, it should have an existence of
substantial and vibrant cultural economy with a high
level of interconnectedness in the global cultural
network. And since the city of Rome and Paris
contain world heritage sites, it has a significance
being a global city historically and culturally.
headquartered in this city. According to Lipsitz
(2010), a global city needs to have a lot of capital,
information on trade, business, and multinational
companies. New York City has all this. Furthermore,
New York City made it as a global city because it is
considered as a location for one of the major centers
of finance and commerce (Lipsitz, 2010). Manhattan,
which is one of the districts of New York City, it is
the economic heart of the city that contains many
headquarters such as the United Nations which has a
major influence in the world as well as the stock
exchange on the Wall Street. Since the stock market
is presence in New York, the city has an advantage
of controlling on what goes in and out of the country.
Thus, if a problem occurs in New York, it means that
it will influence the stock markets globally. For
instance, during the September attacks, there was an
effect on the global economy causing the global
stock markets to decrease rapidly and also caused a
delay in the opening of the New York’s stock
exchange when a plane crashed into the World Trade
Center building. This shows that a global city has a
major influence in other cities as well not just its
domain city like when the New York stock exchange
delayed, London, which is a global city as well, its
stock exchange was evacuated.

Secondly, a global city is a city of demographic

and economic change. It contains international
organizations, different firms such as law firms,
headquarters for the multinational countries as
well as stock exchanges that influences the
world’s economy. Also, in a global city, the cost of
living is better than other cities and there are several
billionaires. For instance, New York City, it is the
most populous city in the United States of America.
It is also the center of international business, a
command center in the world’s economy and the
main center for business such as legal services,
world trade, insurance, banking etc. Due to its
increase in the economic growth, New York City has
become the largest city in the world in terms of
economy (Sassen, 2001: p39). New York City is a
global city because it has powerful organizations that
are linked to the other parts and many of the major
corporations and multinational companies are

Page 3 | Week 8
WEEK 2: “THEORETICAL PARADIGMS ASSOCIATED WITH GLOBALIZATION”

P a g e 1 | Week 8