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What makes a city 'global'?

Is there one model of the 'global city' or competing


versions?
Global cities are dynamic, diverse and dominant. Due to contemporary
globalisation, urbanisation has become a defining trend of global development;
cities are now not only centres of administration, they are populous beyond belief.
High concentrations of people leads to increased human productivity, which in turn
increases economic output. For a city to be labelled as global, it must boast a
number of important characteristics and depending on who you ask, these
characteristics tend to differ. All cities possess economic, cultural and administrative
characteristics that are the result of global decentralisation, yet are able to
strategically centralise economic activity and production of ideas.
New York and London are examples of cities that complement even competing
versions of the global city model - influential on the world stage as centres of
services and trade flows, highly productive and innovative and culturally rich. Tokyo
is the city in the East that appears regularly in lists of the three most global cities
and is a topic of much debate, due to its policy-driven development and lesser focus
on the service sector. Cities in the West are known as global by some because they
exemplify the globalisation of capitalism. The association of capitalism with global
city theory will be explored, as well as the distinction between 'world' and global,
which will include discussion of culture and immigration. This paper will identify a
number of complimentary and contrasting versions of the global city model,
beginning with Sassen's economic model.
A global city may be defined by its characteristics, but it is necessary to examine
the development of such features - globalisation:

Globalization does not mean the death of distance, the irrelevance of place, nor the
death of cities... globalization strengthens the locational imperative to find key
strategic places to coordinate far-flung networks of production and distribution.
(Pearce & Wyly, 2005: 3)

Cities' intriguing reactions to globalisation are important to analyse when defining a


global city. "Globalization usually implies decentralization", yet global cities are able
to strategically take advantage of globalisation "with their enormous concentrations
of resources and talent" (Sassen 1999).
Saskia Sassen is credited with igniting debate on what defines a global city. In her
book The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (1991: 6), she argues that a city's
economic function at an international level is a defining factor. Sassen's model is
effective in classifying cities as global, because it outlines economic development
processes as well as required economic features, such as the complexity of central
functions (Sassen, 2005: 28).
Her model places significance on the relationship between cities; their
interdependence, interaction and parallels in development are important to their
status as global cities. Sassen specifically discusses New York, London and Tokyo
because the three symbolise her main ideas:
as concentrated command points... key locations for finance and for specialized
service firms... as sites of production, including the production of innovations... [and]
as markets for the products and innovations produced.

(1991: 3-4)

All three cities are "specific places whose spaces, internal dynamics, and social
structure matter" (Sassen, 1991: 4). However, most important to a city's status as a
global city is its position in the international economy.

New York is the optimum example of the majority of academics' models of a global
city due to its notoriously powerful financial system and complex social structure.
The New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest in terms of market capitalisation
and Wall Street is home to many of the world's largest financial corporations. New
York is where pen is put to paper:
Since most international transactions are negotiated under British or US law, and since
negotiations occur where British and US legal experts congregate, foreign banks feel
they must maintain a presence in New York City.

(Hill & Kim, 2000: 2172)

Tokyo too is a hub for corporate headquarters - multinational firms that are able to
be represented globally. More Fortune Global 500 companies (the five-hundred
companies with the highest revenue) are based in Tokyo than any other city
worldwide (CNN Money, 2012). Appealing to international investors is a focus of
global cities. The United Kingdom has recently experienced heavy cuts to the
corporate tax rate, making London a popular city for foreign direct investment
(Schutte, 2013). Such investment is in part due to London's ability to secure labour
through high levels of immigration.
Global cities are culturally striking due to their cultural atmosphere and diversity;
such characteristics make them attractive to immigrants and tourists alike. In
presenting London's "new geometry of power" - a response to globalisation - Sun
describes the city "heterogeneous political space where different groups and
communities live with opportunity" (2001: 109-110). New York and London are
reasonably open to immigration in comparison to Tokyo, which challenges Sun's
socio-cultural global city approach by imposing strict immigration policy. Michael
Smith objects to Sassen's global city label for Tokyo, stating it "has low levels of
direct foreign investment, few foreign migrants, and lacks both global financial

command and control functions and a cosmopolitan culture" (1998: 484). A global
city must be more than economically active in the international market.
John Eade discusses London's global city credentials, examining the benefits gained
from "its position as the political and administrative centre of the nation"(Eade,
2000: 2) As well as this, London's cultural appeal is cited by Eade as fundamental
for its global city status, attracting migration and tourism who contribute to
London's diversity and productivity. The London docks are a perfect representation
of London's transformation into a global city. In the 1980s, "politicians... talked
optimistically of... a centre for the financial and service industries upon which
London would flourish" (Eade, 2000: 35). There is no doubt London is economically
functional enough to be considered a global city, but it is also a retired imperial
capital; a true world city. Whether or not it is fitting to make a distinction between
global cities and world cities is a common topic of contention between academics.
Sassen has been known to stress the differences between the terms; according to
her, some of today's global cities - namely economic powerhouses like Hong Kong cannot be described as world cities. Sassen states that 'world city' refers "to a type
of city which we have seen over the centuries, (such as) in earlier periods in Asia
and in European colonial centres" (Sassen, 2005: 28). She also makes note of the
fact that a city is able to correspond with both her world city and global city models,
London being an illustration of this. Many other academics do not distinguish
between the two; global city theory is the same as the "world city paradigm" (Hill &
Kim, 2000: 2167) or Friedmann's "world cities hypothesis" (1986). Some studies
include a cities' cultural diversity and richness in order to list cities as more or less
global.
The A.T. Kearney 2012 Global Cities Index and Emerging Cities Outlook report ranks
cities by measure of a number of different factors. Business activity and human

capital are the most important, with information exchange, cultural experience and
political engagement also seen as contributors to making a city more global. This
model is intuitive, as its inclusion of communication, culture and politics make it
applicable to the effects of globalisation on cities.
If a city displays good business activity and has a high human capital, but its
cultural experience is low, a city is seen as less of a "well-rounded global city" (A.T.
Kearney, 2012: 5). The report mentions the role of cities in the BRIC countries
(Brazil, Russia, India and China), discussing that the cities are rising on the global
city index due to economic output, rather than political activity and cultural
experience.
Similarly, cities in Asia are developing in ways that threaten commonly accepted
perceptions of a developed, global city. Newly economically dynamic cities, such as
Tokyo, have become wealthy due to their openness in the global market, as
opposed to the large privatised service sectors in New York and London. According
to Hill and Kim (2000: 2168), Sassen "continues to assume that convergence among
the worlds major financial centres is the overall trend". They agree with many of
Sassen's theses regarding global city classification, but they present several ways in
which Tokyo represents a drastically different type of global city: Tokyo's
manufacturing is concentrated as opposed to New York's dispersed production and
services specialisation; and Tokyo seeks state capital whereas New York's liberal,
privatised system has a less integrated political relationship with the state (Hill &
Kim, 2000: 2177). The conclusion reached was that Tokyo "does not conform to the
[global] city model" (2186), however Hill and Kim noted the beginnings of
correlation of globalising Asian cities with North American and European cities, an
association so salient to Sassen's model.

These correlations are known by some as a set of political priorities with capitalist
inclination. Political theorist Andrew Robinson is of the opinion that "the global city
model is a solution to the capitalists' problem of global command and
control"(2011). The state has less power economically in a world where capitalism is
increasingly globalising; the distribution of power is more uneven due to wealth
being privatised and exclusive. It is possible to draw parallels between this and
another idea that objects to a number of Sassen's theses, which is discussed in Hill
and Kim's article Global Cities and Developmental States: New York, Tokyo and
Seoul. They argue that Tokyo departs from Sassen's model because, like many other
global cities in the East, it did not experience economic growth of the same nature
as European and North American cities.(2000: 2168) Due to Tokyo's late
industrialisation, its economic characteristics differ to the capitalist tendencies of
New York and London. "Tokyos relationship to the world economy is not driven in
the first instance by market efficiency, but by a strategic concern to preserve
national autonomy through global economic power"(2000: 2176). For Tokyo to be
labelled a truly global city, Sassen's model must be broadened in order to
encapsulate a city in which drastic economic development was primarily state
rather than market-driven. Post-World War II, Japan's strict fiscal policies were what
prompted the "economic miracle" that was Japan's rapid economic growth.
(Molasky, 1999: 4)
As a result of globalisation, economic and administrative functions have been
centralised to regions that are highly productive and innovative. These are large,
developed cities, such as New York, London and Tokyo. Saskia Sassen's work on
creating an analytical global city model has been effective in creating a topic of
debate regarding what constitutes a global city. According to Sassen, economic
activity provides answers, in particular she stresses the significance of parallel
development, to which some authors have associated capitalism. A global city is

key in the production of services and in the operation of global economic markets.
Other academics discuss the importance of political integration, information
exchange and cultural diversity as equally important factors. Tokyo is arguably
exempt from a number of global city models; its state-driven economy and stricter
immigration policy mean it is not a bourgeois city with a focus on services and
international markets that New York and London are. Whichever version of the
global city is adopted, almost every city worldwide has a claim to the name.

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