THE GLOBAL CITY

The Contemporary World

Camille Ocampo
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
GLOBALIZATION AS A SPATIAL
PHENOMENON

 Globalizations occurs in physical space

 E.g. high-rise condominiums
 What makes globalization move is the fact that it
is based places
 E.g. SONY in Tokyo
 Global cities are material representation of
globalization.
WHAT IS A GLOBAL CITY?
 Saskia Sassen (1990)
 Economic power largely determines which cities are
global.
 Three structural facts about global cities:
1. Concentration of wealth in the hands of owners, partners,
and professionals associated with the high-end firms in
this system.
2. A growing disconnection between the city and its region.
3. The growth of a large marginalized population that has a
very hard time earning a living in the marketplace defined
by these high-end activities.
 Three global cities: New York, London, and Tokyo
 Critique:
 Global economy has changed significantly
INDICATORS FOR GLOBALITY
 Economic power
 Centers of authority

 Centers of higher learning and culture

 Cultural power of global cities ties them to the

imagination.
THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITIES
 Sites of great inequality, poverty, and violence.
 Cities can be sustainable because of their density
 Denser settlement pattern yield energy savings
 Extensive public transportation systems cut carbon
emissions.
 Cities with global influence are targets for
terrorists
 Symbols of globalization
 High population

 Gentrification
 Driving out of the poor in favor of newer, wealthier
residents
CASE STUDY: PHILIPPINE REAL ESTATE
 Real estate advertisements in Metro Manila
 Family centric depictions of suburban life in bgated
communities are now juxtaposed with cosmopolitan
representation of “condo living”
 Mega-urban facelifting = demolition of informal
settlements and relocation of slum residents.
 Grounded upon accumulation and dispossession.

 The contemporary gated community of Manila

also segregates, but this time, separating the
supposedly legitimate “hard-working” and “self-
reliant” citizens from the “lazy” and “illegal” poor
residents
CASE STUDY: PHILIPPINE REAL ESTATE
 Localities are active players in negotiating,
resisting or accommodating transnational
mobilities of capital
 The project of de-clogging Metro Manila’s
“dangerous” waterways
 The project, as it endeavors to “save” informal
settlers from “danger” and mitigate flooding risks to
the metropolis, has been a perfect excuse to facilitate
Manila’s face-lifting through informal settlement
eviction.
 Localities as spaces of resistance.