World Cities in a World System

1. World Cities in a World System

2. What makes our distanciated life possible?

3. …between the cyborg and the world …between disembodied interaction and embodied life …between more and less connected populations Our sense of being connected to networks, our mobility, and ourinvolvement with other places depend on the existence of certain core locations that create a global economy and help itcall into existence the technologies it needs Connections!

4. Walter Christaller’s concept of the central place system (1933)

5. Melvin Webber’s concept of the “nonplace urban realm” (1964)

6. Do we inhabit a “space of places” (M. Castells) • or a “space of flows” (M. Castells) • BOTH

7. a global network of connections that supports flows of capital, information, people & goods

8. There are many ways to rank or prioritize world cities source: Paul Knox, “World Cities in a World-System” (1995)

9. Global Cities as Control Points • Global capital flows are channeled through particular locations Knox calls “technopoles” • These world cities become increasingly powerful • headquarters of TNCs • producer services • finance • advertising & telecommunications • information processing • legal services & consulting • All countries gradually lose control over human welfare, capital flows, culture, and information • Poor countries fare the worst in this regard

10. Moving deeper … • World cities exert control over • economic power (capital) • cultural power (influence) • political power (threat) • Historical context • Cities originally controlled all of these, plus military power • Later (18th – mid 20th c.) states controlled all of these • states still wield military power, but other forms of power are increasingly controlled from “above” or “below” the state • The city’s role is increasing again

11. first focus: capital flows & economic power

12. Transnational Capital Flows • Transnational financial flows (some illustrations): • loans from World Bank & International Monetary Fund (IMF) (about $30 billion/yr.) • remittances to families (over $100 billion/yr.) • direct foreign investment (over $1 trillion/yr.) • currency trading (Dollars, Euros, etc.) (over $657 trillion/year; an amount equal to the entire U.S. GDP changes hands every 5 days!)

13. Transnational Capital Flows • TNCsalso link many countries through their branches, subsidiaries, alliances, and contracts • less than 50% of the sales price of a typical American car goes to Americans: • workers & management in Detroit • lobbyists in Washington • lawyers & bankers in New York • stockholders around the country • rest to foreign workers for parts, assembly, data processing • tourism now accounts for $500 billion in global revenues (employs 11% of global workforce) • Five nations (the US, Japan, Germany, France and the UK) account for almost half of all tourist spending

14. Global Stock Exchanges accessible online(http://www.dotcomstockexchange.com)

16. Paradox • A distanciated lifestyle depends on a set of locations that finance and direct its creation • Cyborgs may be more “placeless” than pre-technological people, but they depend on a fixed system that centers power and money in certain places • What are some potential problems with this?

17. second focus: culture

18. What do you see?

19. What do you see? • Steeple • architecture as symbol of the sacred • high structure “points toward heaven” • overcomes distance between life on earth and religious ideals • Cell phone tower • architecture as infrastructure • height as means of increasing reception range • high structure overcomes distance from other people

20. What do you see? • SYMBOL/SIGNAL • strong cultural coherence and stability • strong sense of place • strong sense of community • SIGN TRANSMITTER • cultural instability leads to relativism, “anything goes” philosophy • lack of attachment to place discourages stewardship and care • place-based community, at least, is weakened

21. There are many ways to rank or prioritize world cities source: Paul Knox, “World Cities in a World-System” (1995)

22. Moving deeper … • World cities exert control over: • various flows (in Arjun Appadurai’s terms) • ethnoscapes • technoscapes • financescapes • mediascapes • ideoscapes • One aspect of difference between world cities is their different levels of involvement in these different types of power and flows • e.g. Tokyo: least cultural impact • London and Tokyo are national capitals, while New York is not • Paris & Brussels lead in NGOs & IGOs

23. third focus: human mobility

24. In the space of air-transport, what city is the “center” of Africa?

25. In the space of air-transport, what city is the “center” of South America?

26. What kind of city is Miamiin the world system? introducing the “gateway city”

27. An ethnic turnover …

28. The most striking ethnic transformation of any major U.S. city

29. Segments of the Hispanic population

30. What is behind this transformation? • Miami has become a gateway city • Latin America’s gateway to the U.S. • U.S.’s gateway to Latin America • shopping, investment, air traffic, immigration, tourism, etc. • Miami is the Latin American capital of the U.S. • 60% of Miami’s population does not speak English at home (a higher percentage than NY, Chi. or LA) • 45% of Miami’s population was born outside the U.S. (again highest) • best business climate for Hispanic owned businesses in the U.S. • an established middle and upper class population (from early Cuban immigration, 1930s, 1950s) facilitated immigration and in-migration by Mexicans, C. Americans, S. Americans, and Caribbeans source: T.D. Boswell & J.R. Curtis “The Hispanization of Metropolitan Miami” (1991)

31. Miami as a center for producer services • in terms of the numbers of people employed, Miami’s producer services sector is not impressive: • 1/6 the size of New York’s • 1/5 the size of Los Angeles’ • 1/3 the size of Chicago’s • In terms of it’s share of the local labor force, Miami’s producer services sector is: • about the same as Chicago and Los Angeles (20%) • still somewhat lower than New York (which is at 30%)

32. As a node in international commodity flows, Miami has: • the 2nd busiest airport in the U.S. (118 direct foreign destinations, only 70 direct U.S. destinations) • more foreign airlines than any airport in the world • 3 times as many air courier companies as in New York City • more than 1/3 of all U.S. trade with Latin America • greatest tonnage of air cargo shipments in the U.S. • the 4th largest concentration of foreign banks in the U.S. • winter clothes in the malls • Why? source: J. Nijman “Breaking the Rules: Miami in the Urban Hierarchy” 1996

33. Concluding Quotes • “Globalization affects the institutions and structures of society, from multi-national corporations to the range of opportunities and lifestyles available to different individuals.” • “One common model of globalization is as a wave of change sweeping away local distinctiveness. … However, more critical views of globalization acknowledge more complex relationships between the global and the local. The city is not simply a passive recipient of global processes. Processes flow from the city to the global as much as from the global to the city.” Both from: J.R. Short, C. Breitbach, S. Buckman and J. Essex, “From World Cities to Gateway Cities”

34. Concluding Questions • Would you prefer to live & work in a global city, a gateway city, or somewhere else? • Will the city eventually go extinct or evolve into something else?