The GLOBAL CITY

Facilitator: Voltaire B. Jacinto

 QUESTIONS????
 What are global cities?
 What are the attributes of a global city?
 Why globalization is a spatial phenomenon?
 How cities served as engines of globalization?
KEY TERMS:

 GLOBALITY
 GLOBALISM
 Imperialism and Internationalism
 GLOBALITY is the end-state of Globalization.
 A hypothetical condition in which the process of globalization is
complete or nearly so, barriers have fallen, and "a new global
reality" is emerging.

 The term was used in 1998 by author and economist Daniel Yergin in a Newsweek article that
described the end-state of the globalization process, and in his book, Commanding Heights: The
Battle for the World Economy.
 William Safire traces the etymology of “globality” in his book No Uncertain Terms and identifies
a range of citations as far back as 1942, when it was used as a synonym for “global.”

 Current use of “globality” as it applies to business – as a description of

the current competitive state of world commerce – was not adopted
until recently.

 The term has been described by William J. Holstein in the New York Times as "a
new
buzzword [that] doesn’t work — it merely describes trends that have been
under way for at least two decades under a very similar name."
GLOBALITY vs. GLOBALISM
GLOBALISM a national policy of treating
the whole world as a proper sphere for
political influence.

Compare with: Imperialism and

Internationalism
What are GLOBAL CITIES?
Defining the Global City
 New global cities have since arisen not only as
financial centers but also a producers of services
that are global in scope
 Global cities are post-industrial
 Manufacturinghas been scattered across national
and global networks
 Turnfrom “landscapes of production” to
“landscapes of consumption”
 Defining the Global City
 Global
cities are “brain hubs” and centers of a “knowledge
economy”
 Economies of scale and concentration are necessary despite
the proliferation of communications technology
 Networkeconomies and spillover effects include “thick
labor markets” in knowledge workers.
 Polarization extends to differentiation by human capital
(skills and formal education)
Global City?
 SociologistSaskia Sassen popularized this term.
 Her The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo
(1990) has shaped the concepts and methods
used to analyze the role of cities and their
networks in the contemporary world.
 Sassen’s concept of Global City gives emphasis
on the flow of information and capital.
 GlobalCities 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.

 makingsense of urban systems and their global

networks
In the age of globalization, the
activities of production are
scattered on a global basis.

 These complex, globalized production networks require new forms

of financial and producer services to manage them.
WHY STUDY GLOBAL CITIES?
 Globalization as Spatial Phenomenon
 Spatial as it occurs in physical spaces.
- Foreign investments and capital move through a city
- Companies build skyscrapers

 Globalization is spatial because what makes it move is the fact that it is

based in places. In other words, cities act on globalization and
globalization acts on cities:
-Los Angeles, home of Hollywood, is where movies are made for
global consumption
-Tokyo, headquarters of Sony, the company coordinates the sale
of its various electronics goods to branches around the globe
 Attributes of Global City
 SEATS OF ECONOMIC POWER
 New York have the largest stock market in the world
 Tokyo houses the most number of corporate headquarters
 Shanghai plays critical role in the global economic supply
 CENTERS OF AUTHORITY
 Washington DC, not wealthy as New York, but it’s the seat of American Power
 Canberra is Australia political capital: home to country’s politicians and bureaucrats
 CENTERS OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE
 Cities that house major International Organizations: UN-New York, EU-Brussels
 CENTERS OF HIGHER LEARNING AND CULTURE
 The question then becomes how to
identify these cities, and perhaps to
determine to what extent they function
as global cities specifically, beyond all
of the other things that they do simply
as cities.
 1. AT Kearney’s list, developed in conjunction with the
Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Global Cities Index
uses criteria across five dimensions:
 A.Business Activity (headquarters, services firms,
capital markets value, number of international
conferences, value of goods through ports and airports)
 B.Human Capital (size of foreign born population,
quality of universities, number of international schools,
international student population, number of residents
with college degrees)
 C. Information Exchange (accessibility of major TV news
channels, Internet presence (basically number of search
hits), number of international news bureaus, censorship,
and broadband subscriber rate)
 D. Cultural Experience (number of sporting event,
museums, performing arts venues, culinary establishments,
international visitors, and sister city relationships).
 E. Political Engagement (number of embassies and
consulates, think tanks, international organizations,
political conferences)
 2. The Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation in
Tokyo published another study called “The Global Power City Index
2011.” This report examined cities in terms of functions demanded by
several “actor” types: Manager, Researcher, Artist, Visitor, and Resident.

The functional areas were:

 A. Economy (Market Attractiveness, Economic Vitality, Business
Environment, Regulations and Risk)
 2. Research and Development (Research Background, Readiness
for Accepting and Supporting Researchers, Research
Achievement)
 3. Cultural Interaction (Trendsetting Potential, Accommodation
Environment, Resources of Attracting Visitors, Dining and
Shopping, Volume of Interaction)
 4. Livability (Working Environment, Cost of Living, Security and
Safety, Life Support Functions)
 5. Environment (Ecology, Pollution, Natural Environment)
 6. Accessibility (International Transportation Infrastructure,
Inner City Transportation Infrastructure)
Mori Foundation Global City Power Index (2015)
Global Power City top 10: (2016)

 1. London,
 2. New York City,
 3. Tokyo,
 4. Paris,
 5. Singapore,
 6. Seoul,
 7. Amsterdam,
 8. Berlin,
 9. Hong Kong,
 10. Sydney.
 3. Another popular ranking is the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global
City Competitiveness Index. They rank cities on a number of domains:

 A. Economic Strength (Nominal GDP, per capita GDP, % of

households with economic consumption > $14,000/yr, real GDP
growth rate, regional market integration)
 B. Human Capital (population growth, working age
population, entrepreneurship and risk taking mindset, quality
of education, quality of healthcare, hiring of foreign
nationals)
 C. Institutional Effectiveness (electoral process and
pluralism, local government fiscal autonomy, taxation, rule of
law, government effectiveness)
 D. Financial Maturity (breadth and depth of financial cluster)
 E. Global Appeal (Fortune 500 companies, frequency of international
flights, international conferences and conventions, leadership in higher
education, renowned think tanks)
 F. Physical Capital (physical infrastructure quality, public transport quality,
telecom quality)
 G. Environment and Natural Hazards (risk of natural disaster,
environmental governance)
 H. Social and Cultural Character (freedom of expression and human rights,
openness and diversity, crime, cultural vibrancy)
4. Jon Beaverstock, Richard G. Smith and Peter J. Taylor established
the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC). A
roster of world cities in the GaWC Research Bulletin 5 is ranked by
their connectivity through four "advanced producer services":
accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, and law

 Alpha world cities (with four sub-categories),

 Alpha ++, alpha +, alpha, alpha-
 Beta world cities (three sub-categories),
 Beta +, Beta, Beta-
 Gamma world cities (three sub-categories) and additional cities with
High sufficiency or Sufficiency presence.
 Gamma+, Gamma, Gamma-
Suggested activities:

 1. Look (Google) for these global cities according to

any of the four ranking/research groups. Compare the
ranking, criteria, and sustainability factors. Analyze
how globalization contributed to their success
 2. Present a video-tour of these cities (Youtube will
help you) to amaze our students. Critique and
process.
 3.
 CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITY

 GLOBAL CITIES CAN BE SITES OF GREAT INEQUALITY AND POVERTY

 New York and Tokyo can be sustainable because of their density: denser settlements
yield energy savings; extensive public transportation systems enable people to drive less
cutting carbon emission
 Los Angeles meanwhile are urban sprawls, with massive freeways that force residents to
spend money on cars and gas
 Manila, Bangkok, and Mumbai are dense, their lack of public transportation and the
government’s inability to regulate car Industries have made them extremely polluted
THANK YOU VERY MUCH.