Saskia Sassen Editors’ Introduction as carefully examined data oninforration the economies, and the organzation of physical soace in the most acvanced cities and metropolitan rogons inthe world. In he following selection she describes hows the global scale, economic power is increasingly concentrated in New York, London, and Tokyo, But dispersed as Mexico City, Taipei, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Frankfun, Zurich, and Sydney are global cities. As ecenomic activity is increasingly giobalized and as industries need more specialized services, S bolieves a new world Sassen terms! New York, Tokyo, and other global cit and the economic heath of cties as dispersed around the globe as Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Ho Ch Minh Vietnam, and Santiago, Chile. I financial’ analysts advise their corporate clients that Argentina's economy is weakening and lawyers inform them that legal reforms in China presen: new opportunities for super profits, the corporations may gull billons of dolars out of Argentina and channel the funds to Shanghai - assisted by a small army of advertising executives touting theit products in not only the neighborhoods in these cities, but jobs, woges, g block to do business with a ‘Now in the information ag jusinessmen no longer need to walk next door to communicate with ther lawyers or down ‘wrth a business partner: they can just phone, fax, e-mail, or video conference next door orto a tal lig Bu iy and citi ctr Ste Ins ofw An i help publ R acti dom ol outs along folloy appe and c activ Th inthe: Sa writer likelyTHE IMPACT OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES* ‘emote location anywhere inthe world, so long asthe telecommunieaionsinfactructure permits. Highly developed {elscommunications infastructure in global cities facilitate transmission of information in staggering quantities at ightning speed. International banks in Rio d bank via satelite in seconds, ntisipcting these: rads Melvin Webber (p.470) more than three decades agdBypothasicod that information [Romology would make space incressingly relevant and as a consequence cities would diminish in importance. But assorang :0 Sassen that has nathappened. Sasson hax fond that qlohal nine suchas Alon Yet chs “nai Tokjo have: rown'inipopulalion, wealth, and power Since WhelinfOHStOA FBVOIIMBR. Thc siasuc ana pbariancecontiausalo arow not decline. On the other an ciliata eR Risteeelaes abl salusn Nia Corporate command and.control centers aro in economic decline as corporate power continues lo concentiate Coarrrar errr I coho ia ccoiomc poueeadmetla alc cocina sen prints cul (a preduetion and retaling are becomina more digporsed Many corporations design OTTO 25 ot aacassaulabamsecalobahonnlie -oncon. Tho, Sania (ab imap counin ikelMaijatalo poducsthapoductsthephavedesgRe:. Anchen they maket Ihe inished products in Germany. This kind of producton process requites sophisticated support to manage diopernedl and rapidly changing operations all over the world ~ lawyers familar with Bish law, eccountante wig understand Malaysian accountng practices, and advertising executives sensitive lo the cultural preferences of Goantar pencurie &, CujpUiaihiasaily Have the een Capacity © go all Ietesc! oy an «networks OF ‘specialized firms located in glabal cites to exovide tha ervicen they pect ‘Sassen 4 es, paces caniealto the world and those that exist at the margin. Sheargues that @@SHOHNGIneeUaN SABI AMasng Gites at the center of the world economy. The opporturity for hyper profits in international finan ng Qittaordinary wealth for Wall Street bankers. But many of the low-paid janitors and file cletks who work on Wall Stic worn orn in Thied Worle countic ard ive ethnic New York neighborhoods usta shor distance ay. 'n Sto Paulo, wealthy Brazian nationals and expatiates earn salaries and participa ike those ofweaty New Yorkers than those of he poeple in Sao Paulo neighbohoodsa fow blocks om where they work fa mportan public policy question facing counties all orer the world is how to promote economic equaly and help more oftheir ctizens bonefi from the now world economic oder. Michael Sorkin (p. 290) rages the mportant public policy question of whether investment to rebuild alter the attack on the World Trade Center should concentrated in the same area of New York City or dispersed to bonefit more economics areas of the city janero canbounce a year's worth of nancial cos toa New York cations the whole notion of “ich” countries and “ach” nomy, ular in global lifestyles i and culturaly diver Felons oo als chy dup anarosut ot visbsicalion anduniormationtocnnciog SSasenMGUeNN OREN actvly within the metropolitan areas of global ction manosts » dynamin of hoth concentration and dapercion (ust aes Sertiring in Whe WOHASVSIOMIONCHES) A: tho time thst Exnoct W. Bucgoss deve zone theory {p. 186), Chicago and many other cilics had a distin oa ia it Caan ae Jos ai vet oor entrated Inadvanced metropoftan areas today thera are often nolonaee singly lerey GHAAIed CBBS Basson boleves t BEEN. Vor Ciy's Wall Streetareais an examle.in others theres a ro jo EEE the massive planned oice complex named La Défense just outside the conecol Ban meipeg al ble Saxsun cites latter gun. Sasso” soca Roda of iatense business actly omerging SBHGTEHBeHoUesTSeraigtalhighiWaysPSassen points out that those {ollow historic infrastructure for highways, high-specd ral lines, and airports. Twenteth-cantury infracttu appeais to be shapng the spatial organization of twentyclst-certuy cit and centralization across physical space and within cyber space ~ transtertitoral conters of intense seonome ootivitend Conall ip Glecl: apically Gan eratache aoe, Theopportunity for what Sasson calls “super-profits” in cinta! ming may chan the coffe panier +f sat ucue lisse stessiniostconiiociedioinaplasalecanemy0.‘iques and expensive restaurants may outbid community. serving local busin pearec carr eaeaaal ip debates about the effects of cloaca aati oa ian ‘utlers on information tecknology stress the decentalzing effectsicommunicalions tachnology has had and wil ely have in tho future and disagree with Sassen's assaesment that corparate command furctions will Go his eoncentic ut different mode's are emerging. In some cities something close to a Salong which information flows often 3s. Sassen also discernsagglomeration(GRD) bwlieve that citoe will dactina in importan ‘technology, ‘Saskia Sassen i the Ralph Laviis Professor af Sociolgy at the University of Chicago, and Centennial Visiting Prolessor at the Lendon ide Denationalization: Economy and Polity in a Globel Digital Age (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), Global Networks/L inked! Cites (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), The Global City, 2nd edn (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), Guests and Aliens (New York: Now Press, 1999), Globalization and its Discontents (New York: New Press, 1998) co-authored with Anthory Appiah, Losing Controf?: Sovereignty in an Age of Glebalizalion (New York ‘olumbia University Press, 1998), C fobal Economy (Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Pri 4), obility of Labor and Capital: A Stud in International Investment and Labor Flows New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), an excellent set of readings on global cities see Neil Brenner and Roger Keil (e¢s), The Global Cities ‘Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), Stephen Graham (ed), The Cyborcities Reader (London and New York: Routledge, 2003), contains writings on the impact of information technology on cities. ‘a8. rooult of advances in information 31 ane Th cently. The massive trends towards the spatial activities at the metropolitan urber of 200 vel which we associate with invesitnent, the reduced role of the govemment inthe regulation of intemational economic activity and the corresponding ascendance of other institution atenas, notably global markets anc quarters —al these formation, at least incipient, of transnational urban systems. Toa large extent it seems to me thatthe majo other iistanoe today of Mis nepaation between wusiness centers in the would today draw their a global cross-border dynamic and tersitorially spect importance from these transnational networks. ‘There _ sites is that ofthe global fnancial markets. The orde isno such thing as single global eity ~and inthis sense tude in these transactions have risen sh theres a sharp contrast with the erstwhile capitals o trated by the $75 US. tion in turnove nies. apita market. a major com my. These vansactions are party « nsmision of money information WORLDWIDE NETWORKS AND CENTRAL — around the globe, Much atterion has gore to he COMMAND FUNCTIONS acty for instartaneous transmission ofthe nev technologies But the other half the story isthe extent “Syne spn a cman,» Talerpasteaar ext i the highly developed untres Be pit orl olla 1 the | tional for fi Whe in-hou of glo particu Ieallg global New ¥J} indeed. te degrees of concentration are tnexpectedly } Nigh, a subject [discuss empirically ina later section Stock markets worldwide have become wegrated, Be ajor F jes deregulation in the 1980s in the late 1980s and early 1990s saw the a such marcets as Buenes Aires, S40 Paulo, Bangkok, Taipei, etc, The integrition of ng number of stock markets has conti e the capital that can be mobilized through stock mi dallas in 1998 The specific forms assumed by globalization 0% we last decac created particular organiz ional requirements, The emergence of global marke investment as amajor ye rational transacti have contributed to the exparsion in corrmand tis, the network < vertising firms. that le elds, Such services have hecomeso i and complex, that headquarters iner hem ple stiaightforvrard ela en centrality and su ed: they have contributed 1 the nthe past, the CBD remains akey fo tral, But the CBD in major Ke centers is one profoundly onfigured by technological and economic change We may be seeing a difference in the patter in parts of the United States and cities such as New York and Chicago have large centers that have been rebuit mary times, given the weglectsulfer +h utban infrastructure nd the imposed obsolescence so characteristic of US his neglect and accelerated absolescenc 1 requirements of whatever ut iccumulation or pattem of ganization of the i re they rarely buildings nec tly theart of plex developed right outside Par t m puilt envirenment inside th This is an explicit i ment policy central office space of prime: Yet another fariant of this expansion of the “center” onto hitherto Pp an be seen in London's DocklandsSASKIA SASSEN ‘Snilar projects for recentralizing peripheral areas were launched in several major cities in Europe. North America, and Jepan during the 198¢ scond, the center can extend into a metropolita area in the form of agrid of nodes of inten: activity. One might ask whether a spatial o c rized by dense strategie nodes spre: region does or does not constitute a ne as in the more cosventionel view. an instanc ese Various nodes are articulated through cy er outes oF digtal highways, they represent @ ne geographic correl of digital highways, kowever, are peripheralized. Thi regional nodes represents, in my anel reconstitution of the concept of region. Fer from neutralizing geograpty the regional gridis likely tot ‘embedded in conventional forms of communication: infrastructure, notably rapid rail and highways con ecting to airports, Ironically perhaps, convention srastructure is likely to Third, we are seeing the formation of a transterr rial “center” constituted via telematics and inten: st powerful of th ew geagraphees of centrality atthe inter-urban leve major inteational financial and busine centers: New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Frankfurt stlam, Los Angeles, Sydney, Hong Kon But this geography now also includ ies such as Sto Paulo and Mexico City.The imensit oftransacticnsamong these cities, particularly trough the financtal markets trade inser has inereased sharply, and so ha ricude involved, At the same time, there has bee sharpenng inequality in the concentration of stateg rces and activities between each of these citi inry. Forinstance, Parisnow Fount, new f tuted n electronic ly generated spac purely technological e inthat sense a space of innocence. But i’ we conside hat strategic com h re profits are produced an thereby constituted, Insofar as these technologie are spaces ¥ they also contibute to the making capability of finance and possible the hyper-mobility of finance capital often devastating impact of the ascendence of finance on other industries. on particular sectors of the population, and on whole sconomies. Cyberspace. ike any other space, can be inscribed in a multiplicity oF htening: others, not. My argu pace and that their highly complex configurations ccentain points of coordination ent is that str tures for econ ACONCENTRATION AND THE REDEFINITION OF THE CENTER: SOME EMPIRICAL REFERENTS develo ‘or instance, the Paris region n France, and over 80 percent of the most advanced ones. New York City is estimated to account for beweena fourth anda fi rducer servic exports though it has only 3 percent of the US Population, Lendon accounts for 40 percent of all exports of producer services in the UK. Similar trend also evident in Zurich, Frankfurt, and Tokyo located in much smaller countte In the financial district in Manhattan, the us of tion and telecommunication quirement nt” buildings. A ring of net office buildings meeting these requirements was built over the ast de neciately around the old Wall often not possible, The new buildings in the district extrom: ability hetori need ‘ystems ranch for larg tions ba nition The avast howard ning th the dey national toagres and act such ac center To uncle a partic the earh of two n in the ¢ raised U thereby headoua corporal ‘though § ofthese geograp asis the ile re the com regulatig ihare requires The s growing Industrie the dem:exremely intensive users of telematics, nd the avail ability ofthe most advanced forms typically is amajor lactorin their eal estae and locational decisions, They need complete redundancy of telecommunications systems, high camrying capacity. often their own private branch exchange, ele, With this often goes @ need for large spaces. For instance, the technical installa tions backing a firm's rading floor are likely to require additional space equivalent to the size of the trading floor iter, 1 case of Sydney illuminates the interaction of ast, continental economic scale and pressu cowards spatial concentration, Rather than strength. ening the multigolarty ofthe Australian urban system, the developments of the 1980s ~ increased inter nationalization of the Australian economy, sharp increases in foreign investment, a strong shift to Finance, real estate and producer services ~contubuted and actors in Sydney. This included a loss of share of such activities and actors by Melbourne, long the center of commercial activity and wealth in Australia, ‘THE INTERSECTION OF SERVICE INTENSITY AND GLOBALIZATION To understand the new or sharply expanded a particular kind of ety in the world econon the early 1980s, we need to focus oftwo major processes, ‘The frst is the in the globalization o faked the scale and the complexty of transactions, thereby feeding the growth of top-level multinational neadquarter functions and the growth of advanced corporate services. It is important to note that even though globalization raises the scale and complexity of these operations, they are also evident at sm geographic scales and lower orders of complexity, asis the case with firms that opera utile regionally 0} the jole of on the intersection growth economic activity; this has regionally. Thus not negotiate complexities of intemational borders and the regulations of cifferent count ill faced witha regionally dispersed network of operations that s centrale control and servicing The second process we need to consider is the growing service intensity in the organization of all industries. This has contributed to z massive growth in the demand for services by firms in industies, to STHE IMPACT OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES: mining and manufacturing to finance and consumer services. Cities are key sites lor the production of ser- vices for fms, Hence the inereasein service intensity in the organization ofall industries has had a signifi- cant growth effect on cities inthe 1980s. tis important to recogrize that this growth in services for fimms is evident in cities at different levels of @ nation's urban system. Some of these cities cater 10 regional or sub- national markers; others cater to national markets and yet others cater to global markets. In this context ‘globalization becomes a question of scale and added complexity The key process from the perspective of the urban nomy is the growing demand for services by firms in all industries and the fact that cites are preferred ‘global, national, or regional level, As a result we see in cities the formation of a new urban economic core production sites for such services, whether at of banking and serviceactivities that comes to replace the older typically manufacturing-oriented cote in the case of cites that business centers, the scale, pov major international and profit levels of this new core suggest that we are secing the formation of a new urban economy. This is 50 in at least two ds. First, even though these cities have longbeen nd finance, since the late 1970s there have been dramatic changes in the structure of the business and financial sectors, as well as sharp, centers for business sesin the overall magnitude ofthe ther wei sectorsand inthe urban economy. Second, the of the new finance and services complex, sly intemational finance, enge! regarded asa new economic regime, th although this sector may account fer only af the economy of a city. it imposes itself on that larger eccnomy. Most notably, the possibilty for super-profits in finance has the effect of devalorizing manufacturing Insofar as the latter cannot generate the super-profits typical in much financial activity, This is not to say that Jim the economy cf th changed, On the contrary, they stillshow a great dea of continuity and many similarities with cities that are not global nodes. Rather, the implantation of glob: nd markets has meant that the inter nationalized seetor of the economy has expanded sharply and has imposed a new valorization dj that is, a new set of criteria for valuing or pric various economic activities and outcomes. ‘This has had devastating effects on laige sectors of the turban economy. High prices and profit levels in the what mayary activi as top-of th indhotels havemade it increasingly dificult for other sect mpete for space and investments. Many of these other sectors ine restaurarts have experienced considerable downgrading and/or shops tailored to local needs are replaced by upscale boutiques andres income urban elites Thoug! ffferent or de, thes trends ime evident during the late 1980s i number of major cites in the developing world the ave become integrated into various world market Sio Paulo, Buenos Ares, Bangkok Taipei, and Mexico displacement, as, for exaraple, reighborhc fants catering to new high cote was fed Ly the deregulation of financial market scendance of finance and specialized services, and integration into the world markets. The opening tock markets ‘o foreign investorsand institutional arenas for this articulation, Given the vast jue of some oftheseccities, he impact ofthis new c on the broader city isnot always as evident as incental London or Frankturt, but the transformation is stil ‘The formation of a new production complex Accotdin Jard conceptions about infomation nication of producer services in centat citi not have happened. Be mbe nologies, producer services could be exp: h onal options that bypass the high cost and congestion typical of major cities. But cit ngcompexity, di om proximity to oth his cially the case in ors of these industries. Complexity and innova lion often require maltiple highly specialized ing ts from several industries, The production of a financia instrument, for example, requires inputs from account ric consulting signers, end printers. The operations, explain their pronounced concentration ies. The commonly heard explanation tha high-level professionals require face-to-face inter actions needs fo be refined in several ways. Producer services, unlike other lypes of services, are not neces: atily dependeat on spatial proximity to the consumers 1, economies occur in stich pe fms when they locate close to others that produce key inputs or whose proximity makes po: sible joint production of certain service offerings. ‘The accounting firm can serviceits clients at adistance, but the nature of its service depends on proximity te cialis, lawyers, programmers. Moreover, concen: tration arises out ofthe needs and expectations of the people likely to be employed in these new high-skill jobs, who tend to be attracted to the amenities and lifestylestha production process that requires multiple neous inputs and fe Lage of technical development, immediate andsiml taneous access to the pertinent experts is sill the most elfective way, especially when dealing, with a highly complexproduct, The concentration of the mo facilites in major cities isa key factor in what Lefer to on process o/ theseindustres, bal his combination of constraints suggests that tuction complex. Ths pr ntimately connected to of corporate headquarters; they are olten thought of as forming a join: headqu services complex. But in my reading, we need to distinguish the two. Although it is true that head: quarcers stil tend to be disproportionately concer trated in cities, over the last two deca moved oul, Hi any h locate outsia ut they need a producer services complex wewhere in order to buy or contact for the quarters can inaec uarters of firms with very high overs 28 activ in highly innovative and complex lines of businey. with predominantly regional a to be increasingly free t side ci 1 highly competitive and innovative lines of ac and/or with a strong world market orientation appear > bene from bei at the center of major international business centers, no matter outinized lines of ac co national markets, app The region in the global information age The massive use of telematics in the economy and the corresponding possi nd mobility of firms suggest that the whole notion of regional specalization an¢ of the region may become bsolete. But there are indications that, as is the cas so alo for regions the hypermobility of and the heightened capacity for geographic dispersal may be only pa of the story The evidence on regional specialization in the US and in other highly developed countries these services pointto a different set of outcome What is important from the perspective of the region is that he existence of forinstance, a producer infrastructure which can be of great use to other eco omic nodes in that region. Such nodes can (and. major city or cities in a worldwide network of firms and markets, om the re pective is, then, that omewhere in its territory the regi ate-oFthe-art communi ect it with the world and which bring: Cn ‘omall aver the world to he region, Gwen a regional benefits ofthis jority oreities are no longer co din those cities, mdly. given the nature of the production pro ess in advanced information industries, as de 1 he preceding section, the geographie dispersal of ctvities has limits. The in Fact face wan that a metropolkan or regional connect with the on and thereby to ects with ich c network of firms will need conventional commuri ations infrasiructure, e.g. highways or rapid rail, and ke two hours conventional infrastn ucture In thecase cfintematione networks it takes airports and planes, and in the ease of metropolitan or regional networks, trains and cars, The imporant the operation of economicsectorsthat are heavy users of telematics has not received sufficient attention The dominant notion seems to be that telematics, cbliterates theneed for conventional infrastructure. But it is precisely the nature of the production process jn advanced industries, whether Urey operate globally ‘ocnationally, which contributes to explain the immen: ise in business travel we have seen in all advanced economies over the last decade, the new electroni era. The virtual office is a far more limited option nological analysis would sugges cactivities nywhere, But for work processes Certaintypes of econom nual ffice lecated le speciaized inputs, considerable 4 risk taking the need for direct inte tion with other firms and specialists remains a key locational factor. Hence the metropolitanization and ommute to the major city or cities in tl of inf or key economic sectors. "This typ of the region and older form ncture r of region in many ways civerges from older form her to the second form of metropolita jodes connected via telematics, But for ths al infrastructure nced kind - is also a necessity THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN ACTUAL AND DIGITAL SPACE There is a new topography sharply evide of economic sctivir in ths subeconomy. This topography no fully virtualized firm or economi sector. Even finance, the ros! ved and globalized of all activities, has a topography that weaves back and f sal and digi space. To different extents in different types ofsec ks. noi hese two kindsof spaces; further the re i tO figitalized, demat and different types of firms. a firm's t #SASKIA SASSEN actual conf formation as markets are further globalized, etc. More generally telematics and globelization have emerged as funda: mental forces reshaping the organization of economic space The question | have for architects here is whether the point of intersection between these two kinds of spaces ina firm's 's one worth thinking This intersection is unwittingly, perhaps. thought of as a line that divides two mutus J would propese, again ‘enalyticborderland” which demands its own empirical ificatio bites fo rationsare considerable wans d or standardize dography of activ exploring and theorization, and contains its own architecture, The space ofthe compute screen, which one might posit as one version of the imersection, will not do, oris at most a partial enact. ment of his intersection, What does contextuality mean in this settn networked subeconomy that operates partly in actual space and part in globe-spanning digital space canno' eesily be contextualized in terms of its surrounding Nor can the individuel firms, The orientation is simul taneously towards itself and towerds the global, The Intensity of its internal transactions is stich that it overrides all considerations of the b Yegion within which it exists, On anothe in my research on global cities 1 found rather clearly hat these cities develop a strongerorientation towards he global markets than to their hinterlands, ‘Thereby ‘owt that at $ and urban systems integrate, his may hi nthe using the period manufacturing and mass consumption were the dominant growth aniculate national temtory e bel machines in developed economies and thrived on the possibilty ofa nationsl seale But itis not today with the ascendance of digitalized, globalized, dematerializes finance. The conneetions with other sectors such zones and sectors ints “context” ar one that ridsthat we distinct. For instance, the informal economy in several immigrant commurities some of the low-w. Wall Street, 1 's happening in Paris, of a special sort hink of as radically in New Yerk provides bs on apilal of global finanee. The sane jondon, Frankfurt, Zurich Ll ge workers for the “othe CONCLUSION Economic glcbalizatioy have contributed t that pivots on cross: locations with This is not a completely new feature. Over the cen: sroads of major ferent today an of these nificant portions of id and digitalized they can travel at gre and. telecommunieations produce a spatiality fr the urban and teritorial border netwo: tutes cities have been at the er often worldwide, processes, Wha s the intensity, comy networks, the ext and hence the extent to wh s are now dematetial speeds through some of these networks, and, thirdly, the numbers of cities that are part of cross-border networks operating at vast geographic scal he new urban spatiality thus produced is partial in a double sense: it accounts for only part of wi at happens in cities only part of space administrative city's public imaginan is the extent to which the city ofthese nevr configuretio what we might think of as the youndaries or in th What stands out, however part