GLOBAL CITY

LESSON 8
Good day students!
In this part of the lesson we will discover some
realities about the different cities in the world, the
Global Cities.
We will at first discuss the different indicators to
become a global city. After which, we will try to
comprehend the benefits and challenges that a global
city have.
Lastly, we will search and identify cities in the
Philippines that could be consider as global city, if
there is.
 PARTS

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

PART 3: THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITIES

PART 4: THE POOR AND THE GLOBAL CITIES

PART 1: INTRODUCTION
 PART 1: INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS GLOBAL CITY?

According to the Sociologists Saskia Sakia
popularized the term “global city” in the 1990s.
Her criteria for what constitutes a global city
were primarily economic. In her work, she
initially identified three global cities: New York,
London, and Tokyo, all of which are hubs of
global finance and capitalism. They are the
homes, for instance, of the world’s top stock
exchanges where investors buy and sell shares
in major corporations.
 PART 1: INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS GLOBAL CITY?

OTHER CITIES
COUNTRY OUTSIDE THE
COUNTRY

GLOBAL
CITY

STATE OTHER
CITIZENS

ORGANIZATIONS
 PART 1: INTRODUCTION

WHY DO WE STUDY GLOBAL

CITIES?
1. GLOBALIZATION IS SPATIAL BECAUSE IT
OCCURS IN PHYSICAL SPACES.
(IT ATTRACTS OTHERS)

EXAMPLES:
DUBAI BUILD BUILDINGS, PEOPLE LIVE THEIR.
TOKYO CREATE BUSINESSES, PEOPLE GO THERE.
 PART 1: INTRODUCTION

WHY DO WE STUDY GLOBAL

CITIES?
2. GLOBALIZATION IS SPATIAL BECAUSE
IT IS BASED IN SPACES.
(IT IS PERMANENT)

EXAMPLES:
LOS ANGELES IS HOME OF HOLLYWOOD
ENTERTAIMENT
 PART 1: INTRODUCTION

HOW DO WE SEE GLOBALIZATION IN THE

GLOBAL CITIES?
In the years to come, more and more people will
experience globalization through cities.
In 1950, only 30 percent of the world lived in urban
areas.

By 2014, the number increased to 54 percent.

And by 2050, it is expected to reach 66 percent.

PART 2: INDICATORS OF
GLOBAL CITY
PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

GLOBAL CITY

INDICATORS

MAJOR MINOR
INDICATOR INDICATORS

*ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
*ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS
ECONOMIC *CENTER OF AUTHORITY
POWER *CENTER OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE
*CENTER OF LEARNING
*CENTER OF CULTURE
 PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

MAJOR INDICATOR: ECONOMIC POWER

THIS REFERS TO THOSE CITIES WHOSE MAIN

PRIORITY IS RUNNING THE ECONOMY OF THE REGION OR
THE WORLD THROUGH STOCK MARKETS AND
MANUFACTURING.

EXAMPLES:
NEW YORK = The New York Stocks Exchange (NYSE)
LONDON = The Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE)
TOKYO = The Nikkei
SHANGHAI = Shanghai Stock Market / Shanghai Container Port
 PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

MAJOR INDICATOR: ECONOMIC POWER

In short, the Cities who have the economic power

controls the flow of money and economy of other cities
and other countries. They are so powerful that after the
World War I New York Stock Exchange fell we
experienced the Great Depression.
 PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

MINOR INDICATOR: ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Economic opportunities in a global city make it

attractive to talents from across the world.
Examples:
San Francisco (USA) = Dream destination of top
programmers and engineers from Asia and home of Silicon
Valley’s Technology boom
London (England) = Favorite and preferred destinations
of Filipino Nurses
 PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

MINOR INDICATOR: ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS

The Economist Intelligence Unit has added other criteria

like market size, purchasing power of citizens, size of the
middle class, and potential for growth.

Examples:
Singapore= considered Asia’s most competitive city because of
its strong market, efficient and incorruptible governments, and
livability. It also houses the regional offices of many major global
corporations.
 PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

MINOR INDICATOR: CENTER OF AUTHORITY

It is a city where the countries set of Authority is located.

Meaning, it is the city where the leaders of the country
resides, create laws and implement and execute laws.

Examples:
Washington D.C. = the seat of American state power where
people around the world know its major landmarks: the White
House, the Capitol Building (Congress), the Supreme Court, the
Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument.
Canberra= Australia’s political capital, it is home to the
country’s top politicians, bureaucrats, and policy advisors.
 PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

MINOR INDICATOR: CENTER OF POLITICAL

INFLUENCE

These are the cities that house major

international organizations.

Examples:
New York= headquarters of the United Nations (UN)
Brussels= the headquarters of the European Union (EU)
Jakarta= the headquarters of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Frankfurt= The Home of the European Central Bank
 PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

MINOR INDICATOR: CENTER OF LEARNING

A city’s intellectual influence is seen through the

influence of its publishing industry.

Examples:
New York= Home of the New York Time and far from being
a local newspaper it is generally international.
Boston = The home of Harvard University–the world’s top
university.
 PART 2: INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY

MINOR INDICATOR: CENTER OF CULTURE

These are the cities that embraces the center of world

culture when it comes to food, entertainment and other
industries.

Examples:
Copenhagen = now considered one of the culinary capitals of
the world and the birthplace of “New Nordic” cuisine.
Manchester, England = prominent post-punk and New Wave
bands–Joy Division, the Smiths, the Happy Mondays–hailed from
this city.
Singapore = the cultural hub for the region (Southeast Asia).
PART 3: THE CHALLENGES
OF GLOBAL CITIES
 PART 3: THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL
CITIES

Global cities conjure up images of fast-paced,

exciting, cosmopolitan lifestyles. But such
descriptions are lacking. Global cities also have their
undersides. They can be sites of great inequality and
poverty as well as tremendous violence. Like the
broader processes of globalization, global cities create
winners and losers.
Here are the list of some “pathologies” of the
global city, based on the research of the Chicago
Council on Global Affairs:
 PART 3: THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL
CITIES

1. Population Density
= it can give positive and negative effects to a
Global City. Denser settlement patterns yield energy
savings; apartment buildings, for example, are more
efficient to heat and cool than detached suburban
houses. Hence, a lack of public transportation and
their governments’ inability to regulate their car
industries can make them extremely polluted.
 PART 3: THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL
CITIES

2. Food Supply
= many foods products travel many miles before
they get to major city centers. Shipping this food
through trains, buses, and even planes increases
carbon emission. Solutions like so–called “vertical
farms” built in abandoned buildings (as is
increasingly being done in New York) may lead the
way towards more environmentally sustainable cities.
If more food can be grown with less water in denser
spaces, cities will begin to be greener.
 PART 3: THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL
CITIES

3. Terrorism
= The major terror attacks of recent years have
also targeted cities. Cities, especially those with global
influence, are obvious targets for terrorists due to their
high populations and their role as symbols of
globalization that many terrorists despise.
 PART 3: THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL
CITIES

4. The middle class is also thinning out.

= Globalization creates high-income jobs that are
concentrated in global cities. These high earners, in turn,
generate demand for an unskilled labor force (hotel
cleaners, nannies, maids, waitresses, etc.) that will attend
to their increasing needs. Meanwhile, many middle-income
jobs in manufacturing and business process outsourcing
(call centers, for example) are moving to other countries.
This hallowing out of the middle class in global cities has
heightened the inequality within them. In places like New
York, there are high-rolling American investment bankers
whose children are raised by Filipina maids. A large global
city may thus be a paradise for some, but a purgatory for
others.
PART 4: THE POOR AND
THE GLOBAL CITIES
PART 4: THE POOR AND THE GLOBAL CITIES

We have consistently noted that economic

globalization has paved the way for massive
inequality. This phenomenon is thus very
pronounced in cities. Some large cities, particularly
those in Scandinavia, have found ways to mitigate
inequality through state-led social redistribution
programs. Yet many cities, particularly those in the
developing countries, are sites of contradictions. In
places like Mumbai, Jakarta, and Manila, it is common
to find gleaming buildings alongside massive
shantytowns. This duality may even be seen in rich,
urban cities.
PART 4: THE POOR AND THE GLOBAL CITIES

In the outskirts of New York and San Francisco

are poor urban enclaves occupied by African-
Americans and immigrant families who are often
denied opportunities at a better life. Slowly, they
are being forced to move farther away from the
economic centers of their cities. As a city
attracts more capital and richer residents, real
estate prices go up and poor residents are
forced to relocate to far away but cheaper
areas. This phenomenon of driving out the poor in
favor of newer, wealthier residents is called
gentrification.
PART 4: THE POOR AND THE GLOBAL CITIES

In Australian cities, poor aboriginal Australians

have been most acutely affected by this process. Once
living in public urban housing, they were forced to
move farther away from city centers that offer more
jobs, more government services, and better
transportation due to gentrification. In France, poor
Muslim migrants are forced out of Paris and have
clustered around ethnic enclaves known banlieue.
CONCLUSION
 CONCLUSION

Global cities, as noted in this lesson, are sites

and mediums of globalization. They are, therefore,
material representations of the phenomenon.
Through them, we see the best of globalization; they
are places that create exciting fusions of culture and
ideas. They are also places that generate tremendous
wealth. However, they remain sites of great inequality,
where global servants serve global entrepreneurs. The
question of how globalization can be made more just is
partly a question of how people make their cities more
just.