Blackwell Reference Online

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“Global city” discourse posits and investigates the emergence of a small number of cities occupying commanding roles in a globalizing economic system. The emergence of global cities signals the shift in the organization of capital accumulation and economic production since the late 1970s and a corresponding shift in the nodal functions of some cities away from local, regional, or national contexts to more varied and uneven connections to other cities and regions in the world. Specifically, the designation “global city” is applied to those urban areas consisting of a disproportionate number of major economic headquarters and services, including corporate management, banking, finance, legal services, accounting, technical consulting, telecommunications, computing, international transportation, research, and higher education ( Friedmann & Wolff 1982 : 320). To the extent to which the hypotheses of this literature withstand scrutiny, numerous questions arise regarding the social implications of a greater disjuncture between proximity and connectedness in urban life. Though the concept of world cities in the recent and distant past is not entirely new ( Geddes 1924 ; Hall 1966 ), it was Friedmann (1986 ; see also Friedmann & Wolff 1982 ) who first made a direct link between contemporary “global forces” and “urban processes” in his “world city hypothesis” essay. Elsewhere, ... log in or subscribe to read full text