GNED 07
Hollywood, is where movies are
THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD
LESSON 5
THE GLOBAL CITY
THE GLOBAL CITY
So far, much of the analysis of
globalization in the previous
lessons has looked at how ideas
of internationalism shaped
modern world politics. What
this lesson will emphasize,
however, is that globalization is
spatial.
This statement means two
things.
1. Globalization is spatial
because it occurs in physical
spaces. You can see it when
foreign investments and capital
move through a city, and when
companies build skyscrapers.
People who are working in these
businesses- or Filipinos 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.
2. Globalization is spatial
because what makes it move is
the fact that it is based in places.
Los Angeles, the home of
made for global consumption.
The main headquarters of Sony
is in Tokyo, and from there, the
company coordinates the sale of
its various electronic goods to
branches across the world. In
other words, cities act on
globalization and globalization
act on cities. They are the sites
as well as the medium 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 increased to
54 percent. And by 2050, it is
expected to reach 66 percent.
This lesson studies globalization
through the living environment
of a rapidly increasing number
of people.
DEFINING THE GLOBAL
CITY
Sociologist Saskia Sassen
popularized the term global city
in the 1990s. Her criteria for
what constitute a global city
were primarily economic. In her
work, she initially identified
three global cities: New York,
London, and Tokyo, all of
which are the hubs of global
finance and capitalism. They are
the homes of the world’s top
stock exchange where investors
buy and sell shares in major
corporations. 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 traded in these markets is
staggering. The value of shares
traded in the NYSE, for
examples, $19,300 billion, while
that of the shares in the
Philippine Stock Exchange is
only $231.3 billion.
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
amount 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 influence. 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
late 1990, and since then, it has
grown to become the fifth
largest stock market in the
world.
Other 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”- a place with
good public transportation, a
thriving cultural scene, and a
relatively easy pace of life.
Defining a global city can thus
be difficult. One way of solving
this dilemma is to go beyond the
simple dichotomy of global and
non-global. Instead of asking
whether or not one city is a
global city (a yes or no
question), it is better to ask: In
what are cities global and to
what extent are they global?
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 may have the
largest stock market in the world
but Tokyo houses the greatest
number of corporate
headquarters (613 company
headquarters as against 217 in
New York, its closes
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 units in 2013.
Economic opportunities in a
global city make it attractive to
talents from across the world.
Since 1970’s many of the top IT
programmers and engineers
from Asia have moved 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 any
Filipinos 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
nit 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
tourists. But as Australia’s
political capital, it is home to 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 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 Southeast 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’s currency), is based in
Frankfurt. A decision made in
that city can, therefore, affect
the political economy of an
entire continent and beyond.
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. People read it not
just across America, but also all
over the world. 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 the
American film industry, may be
considered a global city. A less
obvious example, however, is
Copenhagen, the capital of
Denmark. It is so small that one
can tour the entire city by
bicycle in thirty minutes. It is
not the home of a major stock
market, and its population is
rather homogenous. However,
Copenhagen is now considered
one of the culinary capitals of
the world, with its top
restaurants incommensurate
with its size. As the birthplace
of "New Nordic" cuisine,
Copenhagen has set into motion
various culinary trends like
foraging the forests 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 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, respectively, from
the Philippines and Thailand. It
is, in fact, sometimes easier to
watch the movie of a Filipino
indie filmmaker in Singapore
than it is in Manila!
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
references 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 of their large Turkish
populations, for example, Berlin
and Tokyo offer some of the
best Turkish food one can find
outside of 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.
In this section, we list some
"pathologies" of the global city,
based on the research of the
Chicago Council on Global
Affairs.
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
lend 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 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.
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.
More importantly, because of
the sheer size of 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
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 (as is
increasingly being done in New
York) 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
terrorists 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 targets of terror attacks.
There are Trump Towers, for
example, in places like Istanbul
and Manila.
We have consistently noted that
economic globalization has
paved the way for massive
inequality. This phenomenon is
thus 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. This duality may
even be seen in rich, urban
cities.
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.
In Australian cities, poor
aboriginal Australians have been
most acutely affected by this
process. Once living in public
urban housing, they were forced CONCLUSION
to move farther away from city
centers that offer more jobs, Global cities, as noted in this
more government services, and lesson, are sites and mediums of
better transportation due to globalization. They are,
gentrification. In France, poor therefore, material
Muslim migrants are forced out representations of the
of Paris and have clustered phenomenon. Through them, we
around ethnic enclaves known see the best of globalization;
as banlieue. they are places that create
exciting fusions of culture and
ideas. They are also places that
In most of the world's global generate tremendous wealth.
cities, the middle class is also However, they remain sites of
thinning out. Globalization great inequality, where global
creates high-income jobs that servants serve global
are concentrated in global cities. entrepreneurs. The question of
These high earners, in turn, how globalization can be made
generate demand for an more just is partly a question of
unskilled labor force (hotel how people make their cities
cleaners, nannies, maids, more just.
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.