Global Cities

Final Exam in Soc Sci 103N

David Harvey

the restructuring of space

Manuel Castells

urbanism and social movements

Innovation Center

• urban area where research and development industries become concentrated, developing the technical and scientific processes used to make the goods produced elsewhere.

• Cambridge is an example, where the university has connections with a large ‘science park’.

• The most influential world center is the SILICON VALLEY area of Northern California

Module Production Place

the sites for production processes for parts of products, final assembly being carried out in other regions or countries.

Third World Entrepot

Cities of this kind are border centers, with substantial new immigrant populations drawn from developing countries

Retirement Centers

• Retired people now move in considerable numbers to places with good climates.

• This is partly internal migration

Headquarters City

• where the large, transnational corporations house their key activities and are oriented to global concerns.

• The leading headquarter cities are examples of Saskia Sassens calls as the global city which has new four traits.

• developed into ‘command posts’ - centers of direction and policy-making - for the global economy

• key locations for financial and specialized service firms, which have become more important in influencing the economic development that is manufacturing;

• sites of production and innovation in these newly expanded industries and;

• market on which products of financial and service industries are bought, sold, or otherwise disposed

Four new traits of global city

command posts

developed into _________ - centers of direction and policy-making - for the global economy

direction and policy-making

developed into ‘command posts’ - centers of _________ and __________ - for the global economy

financial and specialized service firms

key locations for ________ and __________, which have become more important in influencing the economic development that is manufacturing;

production and innovation

sites of ________ and __________ in these newly expanded industries

bought, sold, or otherwise disposed

market on which products of financial and service industries are _________, ________, or _________

Physical Connectivity

A successful global city needs to maintain the strongest possible ________ with other cities around the world.

Dubai, London, Frankfurt

The most connected cities are ________, ________, and _________

Human Connectivity

• In a world of sharp racial and religious prejudice, such cities, noted Fernand Braudel, offered outsiders a “haven of comparative security.”

• “The miracle of toleration was to be found,” he observed, “wherever the community of trade convened.”

Historic Roots

Global cities, particularly the leading ones, owe much to their early origins - and culture, ideas, and infrastructure rooted in their evolution over time.

Housing Inflation

increasingly distorts and threatens the local middle class by raising property prices, undermining the indigenous economy, and compromising the prospects of upward mobility.

Resentment at Migrants

foreign invasion (migrant workers) of lower-end job services at restaurants and retail, as well as construction (resulting to) _________

Inequality in the glamour zone

• The glut of college graduates - concentrated in urban areas, will need to compete with an aging workforce for a still-limited number of positions.

• Young people - even the educated and well off - are forced to live in smaller spaces and face prices that make purchasing a residence prohibitive.

Flattening of Cultures

Rather than establishing a strong local roots tied to a specific neighborhood, today’s global city tends increasingly toward HOMOGENIZATION.

Emergence of post-familial city

increasingly childless and more focused on the individual

Trends toward ever-increasing density

• The notion that height is a symbol of modernity, efficiency, and even aesthetics is common among urbanists.

• However, families generally avoid high density housing.

• Simply put, modern families in higher-income countries require space and are thus generally unwilling to live in crowded conditions

Related phenomenon of high costs of housing

The unaffordability of housing and the unsuitability of house sizes for families are the principal reasons for the exodus of families.

Weakness urban education system

Progress is, in part, a culprit: the ubiquity of mass education and communication has weakened many of the bonds that held families together - current material culture seems to be perhaps more effectively undermining interest in family.

Ability of people to perform functions remotely via the internet

University of California psychology professor Bella de Paulo asserts that the unattached constitute an advantaged group in that they are more cyber-connected and "more likely to be linked to members of their social networks by bonds of affection." Unlike families, whose members, after all, are often stuck with each other, singles enjoy "intentional communities" and are thus more likely "to think about human connectedness in a way that is far-reaching and less predictable."

Women in workforce

Women’s growing involvement in the workforce, notes author Stephanie Coontz has been necessary for decades, in order for couples to afford children, but it also makes it more difficult for them to raise them.

Homogenization

recreating the same environment everywhere

new politics

prioritizes cultural pursuits, travel, and almost defiant individualism