Romblon State University

San Fernando Campus

San Fernando, Romblon

MODULE 8

The Global City

Learning Outcomes
1. explain why globalization is a spatial phenomenon
2. identify the attributes of a global city
3. analyze how cities serve as engines of globalization

Why Study Global Cities?

Global city, an urban center that enjoys significant competitive advantages and that serves
as a hub within a globalized economic system. The term has its origins in research on cities carried
out during the 1980s, which examined the common characteristics of the world’s most important
cities. However, with increased attention being paid to processes of globalization during
subsequent years, these world cities came to be known as global cities. Linked with globalization
was the idea of spatial reorganization and the hypothesis that cities were becoming key loci within
global networks of production, finance, and telecommunications. In some formulations of the
global city thesis, then, such cities are seen as the building blocks of globalization. Simultaneously,
these cities were becoming newly privileged sites of local politics within the context of a broader
project to reconfigure state institutions. Globalization is spatial.

First, globalization is spatial because it occurs in physical spaces. You can see it when
foreign investment and capital move through a city, and when foreign investment and capital move
through a city, and when companies build skyscrapers. People who are working in these
businesses-or Filipino working abroad – start to purchase or rent high-rise condominium units and
better homes. As all these events happen, more poor people are driven out of city centers to make
way for the new developments.

Second, globalization is spatial because what makes it move is the fact that it is based in
places. Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, is where movies are made for global consumption.
The main headquarters of Sony is in Tokyo, and from there, the company coordinates the sale of
its various electronics goods to branches across the world. In other words, cities act on
globalization and globalization acts on cities. They are the sites as well as the mediums of
globalization. Just as the internet enables and shapes global forces, so too do 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, that number increase to 54
percent. And by 2050, it is expected to reach 66 percent.

Defining the Global City

Sociologist Saskia Sassen 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 corporation New York has The New York Stock exchange (NYSE),
London has the Financial Times Stock (FTSE), and Tokyo has the NIKKEI. amount of money
traded in the NYSE, for example, is $19,300 billion, while that of the shares in the Philippine Stock
Exchange is only $ 231.3 billion.

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 Romblon State University
San Fernando Campus
San Fernando, Romblon
Limiting the discussion of global cities to these three metropolises, however, is proving
more and more restrictive. The global economy has changed significantly since Sassen wrote her
book and any account of the economic power of cities today must take note of the latest
developments. Recent commentators have expanded the criteria that Sassen used to determine
what constitutes a global city. Though it is not as wealthy as New York, movie-making mecca Los
Angeles can now rival the Big Apple's cultural. 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. Finally, the growth of the Chinese economy has turned cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and
Guangzhou into centers of trade and finance. The Chinese government reopened the Shanghai
Stock Exchange in the late 1990, and since then, it has grown to become the Fifth Largest Stock
market in the word.

Others consider some cities "global" simply because they are great places to live in. In
Australia, Sydney commands the greatest proportion of capital. However , Melbourne is described
as Sydney's rival "global" because many magazines and lists have now referred to it as the world's
"most livable city"- a place with good public transportation, a thriving cultural scene, and a
relatively easy pace of life

Indicators for Globality

So what are the multiple attributes of the global city? The foremost characteristic is
economic power. Sassen remains correct in saying that economic power largely determines which
cities are global. New York have the largest stock market in the world but Tokyo houses the most
number of corporate headquarters (613 company headquarters as against 217 in New York, its
closest competitor).Shanghai may have a smaller stock market compared to New York and Tokyo,
but plays a critical role in the global economic supply chain ever since China has become the
manufacturing center of the world. Shanghai has the world's busiest container port, moving over
33 million container in 2013.

Economic opportunities in a global city make it attractive to talents from across the world.
Since the 1970s, may of the top IT programmer and engineers from Asia have move to the San
Francisco Bay Area to become some of the key figures in Silicon Valley’s technology boom.
London remains a preferred destination for many Filipino with nursing degrees.

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. Based on these criteria, “tiny" Singapore is considered Asia's most
competitive city because of its strong market, efficient and incorruptible government, and
livability. It also houses the regional offices of many major global corporations.

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. 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. Similarly, compared with Sydney and Melbourne,
Canberra is a sleepy town and thus is not as attractive to tourist. But as Australia’s political capital,
it is home of the country’s top politicians, bureaucrats, and policy advisors.

The cities that house major international organizations may also be considered centers of
political influence. The headquarters of the United Nations is in New York, and that of the
European Union is in Brussels. An influential political city near the Philippines is Jakarta , which
is not just the capital of Indonesia but also the location of the main headquarters of the Association
of Southest Asian Nations ( ASEAN).Powerful political hubs exert influence on their own
countries as well as on international affairs. The European Central Bank, which oversees the Euro
(the European Union Currency), is based in Frankfurt. A decision made in that city can, therefore,
affect the political economy of an entire continent and beyond.

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 Romblon State University
San Fernando Campus
San Fernando, Romblon
Finally, global cities are centers of higher learning and culture. A city's intellectual
influence is seen through the influence of its publishing industry. Many of the books that people
read are published in places like New York, London, or Paris. The New York Times carries the
name of New York City, but it is far from being a local newspaper. One of the reasons for the
many tourists visiting Boston is because they want to see Harvard University- the world's top
university. Many Asian teenagers are moving to cities in Australia because of the. Leading
English-language universities there. Education is currently Australia's third largest export, just
behind coal and iron ore, and significantly ahead of tourism. In 2015, the Australian government
reported that it made as much as 19.2 billion Australian dollars (roughly 14 billion US dollars)
from education alone.

We have already explained why Los Angeles, the center of American film industry, may
be considered a global city. Copenhagen is now considered one of the culinary capitals of the
world, with its top restaurants incommensurate with it size. As the birthplace of "New Nordic"
cuisine, Copenhagen has set into motion various culinary trends like foraging the tourists for local
ingredients. Similarly, Manchester, England in the 1980s was a dreary, industrial city. But many
prominent post-punk and New wave bands-Joy Division, the Smiths, the Happy Mondays-hailed
from this city, making it a global household name. In Southeast Asia, Singapore (again) is slowly
becoming a cultural hub for the region .It now houses some of the regions’ top televisions stations
and news organization (MTV Southeast Asia and Channel News Asia). Its various art galleries and
cinemas also show paintings from artists and filmmakers, respectively, from the Philippines and
Thailand.

It is the cultural power of global cities that ties them to the imagination .Think about how
many songs have been written about New York ( Jay Z and Alicia Keys's" Empire State of Mind,"
Frank Sinatra's "New York New York," and numerous songs by Simon and Garfunkel).and how
these reference conjure up images of a place where anything is possible-“a concrete jungle where
dreams are made of,” according to Alicia Keys.

Today, global cities become culturally diverse. In a global city, one can try cuisines from
different parts of the world. Because if their large Turkish populations, for example, Berlin and
Tokyo offer some of the best Turkish food one can find outside if Turkey. Manila is not very global
because of the dearth of foreign residents (despite the massive domestic migration), but Singapore
is, because it has a foreign population of 38%.

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.

Cities can be sustainable because of their density. As Richard Florida notes: "Ecologists
have found that by concentrating their populations in smaller areas, cities and metros decrease
human encroachment on natural habitats. Denser settlement patterns yield energy savings;
apartment buildings, for example, are more efficient to heat and cool than detached suburban
houses.” Moreover, in cities with extensive public transportation systems, people tend to drive less
and thereby cut carbon emissions. It is no surprise to learn that, largely because of the city's
extensive train system, New Yorkers have the lowest per capita carbon footprint in the United
States. In Asia, dense global cities like Singapore and Tokyo also have relatively low per capita
carbon footprints.

Not all cities, however, are 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. And
while cities like Manila, Bangkok, and Mumbai are dense, their lack of public transportation and
their governments' inability to regulate their car industries have made them extremely polluted.

GE 3 The Contemporary World

 Romblon State University
San Fernando Campus
San Fernando, Romblon

Because of the sheer size of the city populations across the world, it is not surprising that
urban areas consume most of the world's energy. Cities only cover 2 percent of the world's
landmass, but they consume 78 percent of the global energy. Therefore, if carbon emissions must
be cut to prevent global warming, this massive energy consumption in cities must be curbed. This
action will require a lot of creativity. For example, many food products travel many miles before
they get to major city centers. Shipping this food through trains, buses, and even planes increases
carbon emissions. Will it be possible to grow more food in cities instead? Solutions like so-called
"vertical farms" built in abandoned buildings 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.

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 terrorist despise. The same attributes that make them
attractive to workers and migrants make them sites of potential terrorist violence. Only by looking
from this perspective will we be able to understand the 9/11 attacks that brought down the twin
towers of the World Trade Center in New York, and the November 2015 coordinated attacks in
Paris by zealots of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Now that real estate magnate
Donald Trump is the president of the United States, security experts believe that properties around
the world that carry his name may be target of terror attacks. There are Trump Towers, for example,
in places like Istanbul and Manila

The Global City and the Poor

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.

Gentrification- the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle class or
affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.

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 transformation due to gentrification. In France, poor Muslim migrants are forced out of
Paris and have clustered around ethnic enclaves known as banlieue.

In most of the world’s global cities, 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
hollowing 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.

Learning Assessment

Activity 11 Essay

1. In what ways are cities global and to what extent are they global?
2. Why is there a lot of inequality in global cities?

GE 3 The Contemporary World

 Romblon State University
San Fernando Campus
San Fernando, Romblon

References:

The Contemporary World by Lisandro E. Claudio and Patricio N. Abinales

https://www.britannica.com/topic/global-city

https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economy/Globalisation-Indicators/intro-overview.html

GE 3 The Contemporary World