FM-AA-CIA-15 Rev.

0 10-July-2020

Study Guide in GE 5: Contemporary World Module No.10

STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. 10

The Global City

MODULE OVERVIEW

Global city, an urban center that enjoys significant competitive advantages and that serves as
a hub within a globalized economic system. Simultaneously, these cities were becoming newly
privileged sites of local politics within the context of a broader project to reconfigure state
institutions.
In this module we are going to discuss the definition, what makes a Global city and lastly, the
challenges of Global cities.

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to: you should be able to:
1. Explain why globalization is a spatial phenomenon;
2. Identify the attributes of a global city; and
3. Analyze how cities serve as engines of globalization.

MODULE CONTENT
I. INTRODUCTION

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Study Guide in GE 5: Contemporary World Module No.10

What can you say about these places?

Where would you like to live?

If you had the chance, would you move to New York? Tokyo? How about Sydney? Chances are many
of you would like to move these major cities. And if not, you would probably like to visit them anyway.

Not all people have been to global cities, but most know about them. Their influence extends even to
one’s imagination. What are these places? Why are they important? And how are they relevant to you?

II.. Why do we study Global Cities?

- it is because globalization is spatial

1. Spatial because it occurs in physical spaces

- Foreign investment and capital move through a city
- Companies build skyscrapers
- Businesses

2. Spatial because what makes it move is the fact that it is based places
- Los Angeles Hollywood
- Tokyo – Electronics
- In other words, cities act on globalization and globalization acts on cities
- Sites as well as the mediums of globalization

Increasing rate that people will experience globalization through cities.

• 1950 – 30% live in urban
• 2014 – 54 %
• 2050 – expected to reach 66%

This lesson studies globalization through the living environment g environment of a rapidly increasing
number of a rapidly increasing number of people.

III. Defining the Global Cities

 According to sociologist Saskia Sassen’s Criteria it is Primarily on economic
 Hubs of global finance and capitalism
 Homes of world’s top stock exchanges where investors buy and sell shares in major
corporation
- New York
- London
- Tokyo

Around $19,300 billion dollars of stock exchange of this cities while Philippines is $ 231.3
billion dollars only. But criteria of Sassen is limited here is why:
1. Because global economy changes significantly

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Study Guide in GE 5: Contemporary World Module No.10

2. According to Sassen and any account of the economic power of cities today must take not of the
latest developments.”

Other commentators expanded the criteria that Sassen in global city

• New York rival of Los Angeles now in movie making industry
• San Francisco – home of the most powerful internet companies
• Chinese economy has turned cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou - fifth largest stock market
in the world.

Other consider some cities “global” – great places to live in

 Australia, Sydney – greatest proportion of capital
 Melbourne “rival” -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 is difficult.

Go beyond the simple dichotomy of global and non-global. Instead asking whether or not one city is
global city (a yes or no yes or no question), it is better to ask: on), it is better to ask: In what ways are
cities and to what extent are they global?

In what ways are cities global and to what extent are they global?

 New York - “Largest Stock Market In the World”

 Tokyo - “most number of corporate headquarters”
 Shanghai - “busiest container port in the world” and “Manufacturing center of the world”
 San Francisco - “Silicon Valley’s technology boom”
 London - “preferred destination for many Filipinos with nursing degree”

Economic Intelligence Unit added the criteria of global cities

 Market size
 Purchasing power of citizens
 Size of the middle class
o Tiny “Singapore” – considered Asia’s most competitive city. Why?
-Strong market, efficient and incorruptible government and livability
- Houses the regional offices of many major global corporations

IV. Indicators of Global Cities

1. Global cities are also centers of authority

 Washington D.C. – seat of American state power
 Canberra – Australia’s political capital, home to the county’s top politicians,
bureaucrats, and policy advisors

2. International organization may also be considered centers of political influence of global city

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Study Guide in GE 5: Contemporary World Module No.10

 UN – New York
 EU – Brussels
 ASEAN - Indonesia
 EU Central bank – Frankfurt

3. Global cities are centers of higher learning and culture

 New York Times
 Boston – Harvard University
 Copenhagen – one of the culinary capitals of the world
 Singapore – slowly becoming a cultural hub for the region
- houses some of the region’s top television station
- Easier to watch the movie of a Filipino indie filmmaker than it is in Manila

V. The Challenges of Global Cities

 Sites of great inequality and poverty

 Tremendous violence
 Density – population
 Pollution
 Terror Attacks

VI. The Global City and the Poor

 Slowly, they are being forced to move farther away from the economic centers of their cities.
 As the city attracts more capital and richer residents, real estate prices go up and poor residents
are forced to relocate to far away cheaper areas is called Gentrification.
 Gentrification a phenomenon of driving out the poor in favor of newer, wealthier residents
 In France, poor Muslim migrants are forced out of Paris and have clustered around ethnic
enclaves known as banlieue.
 A large global city may thus be a paradise for some, but a purgatory for others.

Activity 1

Instruction: Search 10 other cities that you think is an example of Global City

CITY COUNTRY Economic Status What are the This city is

(Advance, indicators why known for?
Developing) this is a global
city?
Example: Manila Philippines Developing Center of Center of
Authority Commerce in the
Philippines

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Study Guide in GE 5: Contemporary World Module No.10

Activity 2

Utopian Global City

Instruction: Using your Power Point Presentation, make an ideal “PERFECT GLOBAL CITY” by
following the guide below. Provide pictures:
 Geography (Name,location,Physical characteristic,etc)
choose your own name of your city and tagline of your city
 Economic Characteristic (Sources of Income in your city?)
 Infrastructural Characteristics (Ideal infrastructure of your city?)
 Political Characteristics (What form of government?) Make your own form of government
and explain why this is a perfect government.
 Cultural Characteristics (Who are the settlers? E.g. smart people? Hardworking people?)

Note: (If you don’t have the means to make the activity in a powerpoint presentation, you can use bond
papers and use photos to illustrate your work)

SUMMARY

 Global cities are sites and mediums of globalization.

 Material representations of the globalization phenomenon.
 We see the best of globalization (exciting fusion of culture and ideas, generate tremendous
wealth).
 However, remain the sites of great inequality.

REFERENCES

Aldama, Prince Kennex R. The Contemporary World First Edition.Rex Bookstore, Inc. 2018.
Steger, Manfred B., Paul Battersby, and Joseph M. Siracusa, eds. 2014.The SAGE
Handbook of Globalization. Two volumes. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Claudio L & Abinales P., (2018), The Contemporary World C & E Publishing, Inc., 839 EDSA,
South Triangle, Quezon City

Peterson Institute for economics (2018). What is Globalization? Retrieved from

https://www.piie.com/microsites/globalization/what-is-globalization on May 28, 2020

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