GLOBAL CITIES

OUTLINE OF THE
DISCUSSION
INTRODUCTION
WHAT ARE GLOBAL CITIES?
MOBILITY, MIGRATION, AND THE GLOBAL CITY
DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY IN THE GLOBAL CITY
 INTRODUCTION
Global in the Local:
• Globalization’s main physical and geographic embodiment
• Global flows of people, goods, resources, ideas
• Embodies both the good and bad effects of globalization
 Globalization is spatial
 Globalization is spatial because it occurs in physical spaces
 Globalization is spatial because what makes it move is the fact that
is based in places
 WHAT IS GLOBAL CITY?

• The global city, alpha city or world city is called

the cities endowed with relevant competitive advantages and
that serve as the axis of a globalized economic system . They
are cities forged by the double effect of a constantly growing
urbanization, and the pressures of the economic
and social process of globalization.
Cosmopolitanism
• Diversity of people, goods, ideas,
and cultures
• Capitalist context points to a
cosmopolitan commercial
consumption
• Consumption is costly in
resources
Perpetuation in the Internet Age
• Networks and groups rely on
geographic proximity

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Downsides
• High costs, alienation,
impersonality, social
isolation
• Discrimination against
migrants of certain kinds
Key Issues:
• Diversity and community
• Mobility and community

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• Historical precedents:
• Imperial Cities - seats of
imperial power
• Free Cities - links in ancient
trade routes
• World city
• Perspective Matters:
• The globe as the unit of analysis
• The global city transcends
boundaries of nation-states

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 DEFINING GLOBAL CITIES

• Saskia Sassen (2005) Saskia Sassen The Global City identified in

four ways:
introduces global cities as 1. Key locations for finance and specialized
global command centers service firms, which have replaced
manufacturing as the leading economic
of the world economy services
2. Sites of production, including the
• Identified three global production of innovations in leading
industries
cities; New York, Tokyo, 3. Highly concentrated command points in
and London the organization of the world economy
4. Markets for the products and innovations
produced
Saskia Sassen

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LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

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NEW YORK, USA

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TOKYO, JAPAN

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DEFINING GLOBAL CITIES
• 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
• Manufacturing has been scattered across
national and global networks
• Turn from landscapes of production to
landscapes of consumption
Apart from being financial centers, global cities are:
• Geopolitical power centers
• Cultural and trendsetting powerhouses
• Higher education hubs
• Creative Industries
Nature of activities generates a specific labor demand:
• A professional class of knowledge workers
• Highly mobile, career minded not necessarily elites
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DEFINING GLOBAL CITIES
• Nature of activities generates a specific labor demand:
• A professional class of knowledge workers
• Highly mobile, career minded not necessarily elites
• Drives gentrification of cities but also polarization
• Occupational and income polarization
• Highly paid professional class vs providers of low paid services
• Polarization of housing markets
• Mitigated by state action in certain areas

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DEFINING GLOBAL CITIES
• Global cities are “brain hubs” and centers of a “knowledge
economy”
• Economies of scale and concentration necessary despite the
proliferation of communications technology
• Network economies and spillover effects include “thick labour
markets” in knowledge workers
• Polarization extends to differentiation by human capital (skills
and formal education)

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Mori Foundation Global City Power Index (2015)

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END OF SLIDE

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