The Global City

The Global City
Why Study Global Cities?

Globalization is SPATIAL
• First, it occurs in physical

spaces.
You can see it when

foreign investment and capital
moves through a city, and when
companies build skyscrapers.
In this event, more poor
people are driven out of the city
centers to make way for the
new developments.
• Second, what makes it move
is the fact that it is based in
places.
Cities act on
globalization and globalization
acts on cities. They are the
sites as well as the medium of
globalization. Just as the
internet shapes global forces,
(Sony) is in Tokyo, the company coordinates the sales of its
various electronic goods to branches across the world.
so too do cities.
In the years to come, more and more people will experience globalization through cities.
In 1970, from
33 Philippine
urban population
%
.74%
In 2019
47.1%
Growing average
annual rate of
What is Global
City?
• Sociologist Saskia Sassen
popularized the term “Global City” in
the 1990s. Her criteria for what
constitutes a global city were
primarily economic.
• Sassen initially identified three
Global Cities; New York, London, and
Tokyo, all of which are hubs of global
finance and capitalism.
New York has the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), London has the
Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE), and Tokyo has the Nikkei. The amount
of money trade in this market is staggering.
The New York Stock Exchange represents the highest concentration of capital
in the world.
The global economy has changed significantly since Sassen wrote her book, and any account
of the economic power cities today.
Latest Development
Los Angeles can now rival the Big Apple’s cultural influence.
San
Francisco is now the home of the
most powerful internet companies.
The growth of Chinese economy has turned cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou
into center trade of finance. Chinese government reopened the Shanghai Stock Exchange in
1990. Since then it has grown to become the 5th largest stock market in the world.
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 city” because many magazines and lists have
now referred to it as the world’s “most livable city”.
Most Livable City – A place with good public transportation, a thriving cultural sense, and
a relatively easy pace of life.
The ten most violent cities in the world
(World Population Review, 2023)
Tijuana, Mexico
Acapulco, Mexico
Caracas, Venezuela
Ciudad Victoria, Mexico
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Irapuato, Mexico
Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela
Natal, Brazil
Fortaleza, Brazil
Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela
Indicators of
Globality
1. The foremost characteristic of global city is economic power.
 Sassen remains correct in saying that
economic power largely determines which cities are
global.
The manufacturing, mining, energy, and agricultural

industries are China's largest industries. Manufacturing is by
China far the biggest industry in China accounting for 46.8% of the
manufacturing country’s GDP.
center of the world
Economic opportunities in a global city make it
attractive to talents from across the world.
Since 1970, top IT programmers and engineers

from Asia have moved to San Francisco Bay Filipinos with nursing degrees
Area to become the key figures in technology preferred London
boom.
The Economist Intelligence Unit
measures the economic competitiveness
of a city via:
Market size
Purchasing power of the citizens
Size of middle class
Potential for growth
2. 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. Its major landmarks:
The White House The Capitol Building (Congress) The Supreme Court
The Lincoln Memorial The Washington Monument

The cities are considered centers of political influence that house
major international organizations. The headquarters of:
 United Nations is in New York
 European Union is in Brussels
 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is in
Jakarta
Powerful political hubs exert influence on their own countries as well as on
international affairs. A decision made in that city can, therefore, affect the
political economy of an entire continent and beyond.
3. Global cities are centers of higher learning and culture. A city’s intellectual
influence is seen through the influence of its publishing industry.
The New York Times carries the name of University of Oxford

New York City. People read it not just across The world’s top university. One of the
America, but also all over the world. reasons many tourists visit England.
Education is currently Australia’s third largest export. Many Asian teenagers

are moving to cities in Australia because of the leading English-language universities.
Australian made roughly as much as $14 billion from education alone.
It is the cultural power of global cities that ties them to the imagination.
Singapore is slowly becoming a cultural hub. It now

houses some of the region’s top television stations and
new organizations. Its various art galleries and cinemas
also show paintings from artists and filmmakers,
respectively, from the Philippines and Thailand.
Los Angeles, the center of the American film industry, the

home of Hollywood, is where movies are made for global
consumption and is considered a global city.
Copenhagen- It is so small that one can tour the entire city

with bicycle in thirty minutes. It is now considered one of the
culinary capitals of the world. As the birthplace of “New
Nordic” cuisine, Copenhagen has set into motion various
culinary trends like foraging the forest for local ingredients.
Today, global cities become culturally diverse. In a global city, one can try cuisines
from different parts of the world.
Manila is not very global because foreign residents are still reluctant to live there,
but Singapore is, because it has a foreign population of 38%.
The Challenges of
Global Cities
Global cities set up an image of an exciting lifestyles, but such description is lacking. Global
cities have great inequality and poverty as well as tremendous violence. They create
winners and losers.
Cities can be sustainable because of their density.

As Richard Florida, an American urban studies theorist, notes:
“Ecologists have found that by concentrating their populations in
smaller areas, cities and metros decrease human encroachment on
natural habitat.”
In cities with extensive public transportation systems, people

tend to drive less and thereby cut carbon emissions.
Not all cities are as dense as New York or Tokyo. 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.
Because of the sheer size of city populations across the

world, 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.
Cities with global influence, are obvious targets for terrorists due to their
high populations and their role as symbols of globalization that many
terrorists despise. The same attributes that make them attractive to workers
and migrants make them sites of potential terrorist violence.
The Global City and
the Poor
Economic globalization has paved the way for massive inequality, which is very
pronounced in cities.
Many cities, particularly those in developing

countries, are site of contradictions. In cities
like Mumbai, Jakarta, and Manila, it is common
to find gleaming building alongside massive
shanties.
Gentrification – a phenomenon of driving out the poor in favor of newer, wealthier
residents.
In the borders of New York and San Francisco are poor urban enclaves occupied
by African-Americans and immigrant families who are often denied opportunities of a
better life. Slowly, they are being forced to move farther away from economic
centers of their cities. As the 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.
In most of the world’s global cities,
the middle class is also thinning out for
globalization creates high-income jobs. 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. 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.
Conclusion
Global cities are material representations of globalization.
Through global city, 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.

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The Global City

Why Study Global Cities?

• First, it occurs in physical

You can see it when

most powerful internet companies.

In Australia, Sydney commands the greatest proportion of capital. However,

The manufacturing, mining, energy, and agricultural

Since 1970, top IT programmers and engineers

The Lincoln Memorial The Washington Monument

The New York Times carries the name of University of Oxford

Education is currently Australia’s third largest export. Many Asian teenagers

Singapore is slowly becoming a cultural hub. It now

Los Angeles, the center of the American film industry, the

Copenhagen- It is so small that one can tour the entire city

Cities can be sustainable because of their density.

In cities with extensive public transportation systems, people

Because of the sheer size of city populations across the

Many cities, particularly those in developing

A large global city may thus be a paradise for some, but a

Through global city, we see the best of globalization;

However, they remain sites of great inequality, where global

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