GLOBAL
POPULATION
AND MOBILITY
THE GLOBAL
CITY
GLOBAL CITY
• Sociologist Saskia Sassen popularized the term
“global city” in the 1990’s.
• She initially identified three global cities: New York,
London, and Tokyo.
• New York has the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE), London has the Financial Times Stock
Exchange (FTSE) and Tokyo has the Nikkei.
GLOBAL CITY
• Recent commentators have expanded the criteria that
Sassen used to determine what constitutes a global
city.
• Movie-making Mecca Los Angeles can now rival the
Big Apple’s Cultural influence.
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 GLOBALITY
• 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.
INDICATORS OF GLOBALITY
• 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 GLOBALITY
• 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 tourists.
But as Australia’s political capital, it
is home to the country’s top
politicians, bureaucrats, and policy
advisors.
INDICATORS OF GLOBALITY
• The cities that house major international organizations may also be
considered centers of political influence.
United Nations headquarters – New York
European Union headquarters – Brusseis
ASEAN headquarters – Jakarta
European Central Bank – Frankfurt
• Global cities are centers of higher learning and culture. A city’s
influence of its publishing industry.
• Harvard University Australia
Boston
• LOS ANGELES – the center of the American film
industry
• COPENHAGEN, DENMARK – is now 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 – Joy Division, the
Smiths, and the Happy Mondays – hailed from this city.
• Singapore houses 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, 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 study global cities?
• Globalization is special which means:
1. Globalization is spatial 2. Globalization is
because it occurs in physical spatial because what
spaces. More people are driven makes it move is the
out of city centers to make way fact that it is based in
for the new developments. places.
THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL
CITIES
• Global cities also have their undersides.
They can be sites of great inequality and
poverty as well as tremendous violence.
• Global cities create winners and losers.
THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL
CITIES
• 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 tent to drive less and thereby cut carbon
emissions.
THE 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.
THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBAL CITIES
• 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.
• VERTICAL FARMS
THE 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 Levant (ISIL)
THE GLOBAL CITY AND THE POOR
• Massive inequality was very pronounced in cities. Some
large cities, particularly those in Scandinavia, have found
ways to mitigate inequality through state-led social
redistribution programs. Yet, many cities, particularly those
in the developing countries, are sites of contradiction.
• In places like Mumbai, Jakarta, and Manila, it is common
to find gleaming buildings alongside massive shantytowns.
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.
THE GLOBAL CITY AND THE POOR
• GENTRIFICATION – a phenomenon of driving out
the poor in favor of newer, wealthier residents.
• In Australian cities, poor aboriginal Australians have been
most acutely affected by gentrification.
THE GLOBAL CITY AND THE POOR
• 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.
• In places like New York, there are high-rolling American
investment bankers whose children are raised by Filipina
maids.
