THE GLOBAL CITY

GNED 07|THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
• Explain why globalization is a spatial phenomenon;
• Identify the attributes of a global city; and
• Analyze how cities serve as engines of globalization.
IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE, WOULD YOU
MOVE TO NEW YORK? TOKYO? HOW
ABOUT SEOUL?
Insert picture of new York, Tokyo, seoul
• Insert pic of NY, Tokyo and Seoul
 GLOBAL CITY
• Saskia Sassen – she popularized
the term “Global city” in the
1990’s.
• She Initially identified 3 Global
Cities: New York, London, Tokyo
• New York – New York stock
exchange (NYSE)
• London – Financial Times Stock
Exchange (FTSE)
• Tokyo - Nikkei
 GLOBAL CITY
• Recent commentators have expanded the
criteria that Sassen used to determine
what constitutes a global city.
• San Francisco must now factor in as
another global city because it is the home
of the most powerful internet companies,
Facebook, Twitter and Google.
• The Growth of the Chinese economy has
turned cities like shanghai, Beijing and
Guangzhou into centers of trade and
finance.
INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY
• The foremost characteristic of a
global city is economic power.
• Economic power largely
determines which cities are
global.
• Economic opportunities in a
global city make it attractive to
talents from across the world.
INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY
• To measure the economic
competitiveness of a city, the economist
intelligence unit has added other
criteria like market size, purchasing
power of citizens, size of the middle
class, and potential for growth.
• The “tiny” Singapore is considered as
Asia’s most competitive city because of
its strong market, efficient and
incorruptible government, and
livability.
INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY
• Global cities are also centers of
authority. Washington D.C. may not
be as wealthy as New York, but it is
the seat of American state power.
• Compared with Sydney and
Melbourne, Canberra is a sleepy
town and not attractive to tourist. But
as Australia’s political capital, it is
home to the country’s top politicians,
bureaucrats, and policy advisors.
INDICATORS OF GLOBAL CITY
• The cities the house major
international organizations may also
be considered centers of political
influence.
• United Nations Headquarters
• European Union Headquarters
• ASEAN Headquarters
• European Central Bank
• Global cities are centers of higher
learning and culture. A city’s
intellectual influence is seen through
the influence of its publishing
industry.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
AUSTRALIA
LOS ANGELES
• The center of the
American Film
industry.
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
• Considered as one of
the culinary capitals of
the world, with its top
restaurants
incommensurate with
its size.
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND

• Many prominent
post-punk and
new wave bands.
 SINGAPORE
• Singapore house some of the
region’s top television stations and
news organizations (MTV Southeast
Asia and Channel News Asia)
• Its various art galleries and cinemas
also show paintings from artists and
filmmakers from Philippines and
Thailand.
 TODAY…
• Today, global cities become
culturally diverse.
• Manila is not very global
because of the dearth of foreign
residents.
• But Singapore is, because it has
a foreign population of 38%.
 WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY GLOBAL
CITIES?
• Globalization is spatial which
means:
• It occurs in physical spaces. More
people are driven out of city
centers to make way for the new
developments.
• Globalization is spatial because
what makes it move is the fact that
it is based in places.
CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITIES
• They can be sites of great inequality and
poverty as well as tremendous violence.
• Global cities creates winners and losers.
• Denser settlement patterns yield energy
savings; apartment building for example,
are more efficient to heat and cool than
detached suburban house.
• In cities with extensive public
transportation systems, people tend to
drive less and thereby cut carbon
emissions.
CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITIES
• Not all cities are as dense as New York or
Tokyo. Some cities like Los Angeles are
Urban sprawls, with massive freeways
that force residents to spend money on
cars and gas.
• Urban areas consume most of the world’s
energy. Cities only cover 2% of the
world’s landmass, but they consume 78%
of global energy. Therefore, if carbon
emissions must be cut to prevent global
warming, this massive energy
consumption in cities must be curbed.
CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITIES
• The major terror attacks of
recent years have also
targeted cities. Cities,
especially those with global
influence are obvious targets
for terrorists.
• 9/11 attack-world trade center,
New York
• November 2015 attacks in Paris
by Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL)
THANK YOU!