THE

CONTEMPORARY
WORLD
L.GARCIA 2018
Week 11

GLOBAL CITY

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Global City
✗ The idea emerged in the social science literature in the
1980’s, shortly after the concept of globalization.
✗ It has a central place in understanding contemporary
spatial patterns of globalization
✗ It is the main physical and geographic playground of the
globalizing forces
✗ The global flows of people, capital and ideas are woven into
the daily lived experiences of its residents
✗ It means power, sophistication, wealth, and influence.

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✗ The ideas and values of the metropolis shape the world.
✗ Embodies both the good and the bad effects of globalization.
✗ The global city transcends boundaries of nation-states
✗ According to Sassen (1991), global cities are characterized by
occupational and income polarization, with the highly paid
professional class on the one end and providers of low-paid
services on the other.

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✗ The lifestyle and needs of the well-off professional classes bring
into the global city an army of low-paid workers who deliver
personal and labor-intensive services like cleaning, child-care,
delivery, restaurants and eateries, catering, maintenance,
transport, hotels, domestic help and retail.
✗ Sassen (2005) introduces global cities as global command
centers of the world economy.

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Cosmopolitanism
✗ It is the phenomenon most readily associated with the
global city.
✗ Large, diverse cities attract people, material and cultural
products from all over the world.
✗ The idea of cosmopolitanism invokes pleasant images of
travel, exploration, and ‘worldly’ pursuits enjoyed by
those who have benefited from globalization

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✗ Everyday life is significantly shaped by commercial
culture, retail and shopping as well as cross cultural
variety of food, fashion, entertainment and various
other consumables and artifacts.
✗ Consumption is costly in resources
✗ Networks and groups rely on geographic proximity

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Global Cities are livable cities because:
✗ They provide jobs that pay an adequate wage
✗ They provide basic services, including safe water
and adequate sanitation
✗ They are void of discriminatory practices
✗ People have access to educational opportunities
and health care
✗ People are not at risk of forced eviction

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✗ People enjoy security of tenure in
affordable housing
✗ People live in communities that are safe
and environment that are clean
✗ The cities are governed through inclusive
local democratic processes

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Japanese Mori Foundation’s Global Power City Index
It measures the global power of cities using the
combination of six (6) criteria:
✗ Economy
✗ Research and Development
✗ Cultural Interaction
✗ Livability
✗ Environment
✗ Accessibility
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Downsides of the Global City

✗ High costs
✗ Alienation
✗ Impersonality
✗ Social isolation
✗ Discrimination against migrants of
certain kinds

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Key Issues
✗ Diversity and community
✗ Mobility and community

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Trends for the Top 3 Cities
✗ London, the No. 1 city in the comprehensive ranking for the
sixth year in a row, further extends its lead over the
competition by improving its scores for such indicators as
GDP Growth Rate and Level of Political, Economic and
Business Risk in Economy, and for Attractiveness of Dining
Options and Number of Visitors from Abroad in Cultural
Interaction.

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✗ New York (No. 2) increases its scores for
the Economy indicators of Nominal GDP
and GDP Growth Rate, but fails to make
any significant headway in
comprehensive score, having returned
weaker scores this year in Cultural
Interaction indicators such as Number of
World-Class Cultural Events Held and
Livability indicators like Variety of Retail
Shops .
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