Understanding the Global City

The Global City

• Globalization is spatial and occurs in physical spaces
• Globalization can be seen in different cities
• Globalization is based in places, such as Los Angeles, home of Hollywood, and Tokyo, headquarters of SONY
• Cities act on globalization, and globalization acts on cities
• Cities are sites of mediums of globalization
• More people will experience globalization through cities
• 30% of the world lived in urban areas in 1950
• 54% of the world lived in urban areas in 2014
• 66% of the world are projected to live in urban areas in 2050
• This lesson delves into globalization through the living environment of an increasing number of people

Defining the Global City

• Saskia Sassen is a sociologist who popularized the term "global city"
• Sassen identified three global cities: New York, London, and Tokyo
• New York, London and Tokyo are the home is the New York Stock Exchange, Financial Times Stock Exchange and Nikkei Exchanges respectively
• The global economy has changed since Sassen's book
• Current economic power of cities must consider latest developments
• Commentators have since expanded the criteria used to define a global city

Global City Examples

• San Francisco is a global city due to companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google
• Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou exhibit growth of the Chinese economy
• The Shanghai Stock Exchange was established in 1990
• Sydney commands the greatest proportion of capital, while Melbourne is considered the "most livable city"
• Defining a global city can be difficult, and should go beyond a simple global or non-global dichotomy
• One must assess how cities are global and to what extent

Indicators for Globality

• Economic Power: This is based on economic opportunities to attract talent
• Criteria include: Market size, purchasing power, and potential for growth
• Example is Singapore
• Centers of Authority: Example is Washington D.C.
• Centers of Political Influence: New York, Brussels, Jakarta, Frankfurt
• Centers of Higher Learning and Culture: Intellectual influence is seen through the influence of its publishing industry
• An example is The New York Times, Boston-Harvard University, and leading English-language universities in Australia
• Other examples include Los Angeles, Copenhagen, and Manchester
• Cultural power is also an idicator of a global city

Challenges of Global Cities

• Global cities conjure up images of fast-paced, exciting, cosmopolitan lifestyles
• Global cities are sites of great inequality and poverty, as well as violence
• They can create winners and losers, similar to the broader process of globalization
• Cities with global influence are targets for terrorists due to their populations and role as symbols of globalization

The Global City and The Poor

• Economic globalization has paved the way for massive inequality
• Globalization creates high-income jobs, concentrated in global cities
• Most of the world's global cities see the middle class thinning out

Gentrification

• As cities attract more capital and richer residents, real estate prices increase
• Poor residents are then forced to relocate to cheaper areas
• This phenomenon of driving out the poor in favor of newer, wealthier residents is "gentrification"
• The hollowing out of the middle class in global cities has heightened inequality within them
• A large global city is a paradise for some, but not for others

Additional Information

• Cities can be sustainable because of their density
• Richard Florida notes that cities and metros decreases human encroachment on human habitat by concentrating populations in small areas
• Denser settlement patterns yield energy savings and apartment buildings
• Cities with extensive public transportation systems help people drive less and cut carbon emissions
• New York has the lowest per capita carbon footprint in the USA
• Dense global cities in Asia, such as Singapore and Tokyo, also have relatively low per capita carbon footprints
• Not all cities are as dense as New York and Tokyo
• Los Angeles is an urban sprawl with freeways that force residents to spend money on cars and gas

Pollution

• Manila, Bangkok, and Mumbai are dense, but lack of public transportation and government regulation cause pollution
• Urban areas consume most of the world's energy due to the size of their populations
• Cities cover 2% of the world's landmass, but consume 78% of global energy
• Carbon emission cuts are needed to prevent global warming and massive energy consumption
• Many food products travel miles before reaching major city centers
• Shipping food through different transportation vehicles increases carbon emissions
• A solution is vertical farms built in abandoned buildings, which is being done in New York and may lead the way towards more environmentally sustainable cities