Global city
A global city is typically defined as a significant urban center that exerts considerable influence on a global scale in economic, cultural, political, and technological domains. Various organizations and researchers have developed distinct methodologies for identifying and categorizing these cities. For instance, A.T. Kearney evaluates global cities based on an index that considers business activity, cultural experiences, human capital, information exchange, and political engagement. Similarly, the Brookings Institution classifies global cities into seven categories, recognizing their unique contributions to the global economy and innovation. Historically, cities like Rome, London, and New York have been pivotal in establishing global city characteristics, with each playing a crucial role in trade, culture, and migration throughout different eras. The Globalization and World Cities Research Network employs a tiered ranking system to assess cities’ integration into the global economy, categorizing them into Alpha, Beta, and Gamma levels based on their influence. Overall, global cities are characterized by their cultural diversity, economic vitality, and interconnectedness, making them central to contemporary globalization processes.
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Global city
In the twenty-first century, increased globalization and interconnectedness have given new importance to the concept of the global city. Political scientists, economists, sociologists, and human development organizations have forwarded many different definitions of the term, but in a general sense, a global city is one that occupies a position of internationally influential economic, cultural, political, and technological leadership. One popular concept of global cities comes from the prominent American management firm Kearney (formerly A.T. Kearney), which evaluates the performance of major metropolitan centers according to various economic, cultural, political, and technological criteria.
Other organizations, such as the Washington, DC-based Brookings Institution and the Globalization and World Cities Research Network at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, classify global cities differently. The Brookings Institution identifies seven different types of global cities, all of which display unique economic, industrial, and competitive characteristics. The Globalization and World Cities Research Network categorizes global cities in a tiered ranking system that assesses each city's relative level of integration with the international economy.
Background
Rome is usually identified as the first Western metropolis to develop the characteristics commonly seen in the global cities of the current age. As the cultural, economic, and political capital of the vast Roman Empire, Rome's profound influence facilitated unprecedented advancements in trade, commerce, and population mobility. The nascent brand of globalization that first emerged in Rome continued to evolve after the decline of the Roman Empire, with Constantinople (now Istanbul) becoming a critical cross-cultural hub and a vital bridge between the Western and Eastern worlds during the Early Middle Ages and beyond.
Following the pioneering voyages of Christopher Columbus, European powers led by France, Great Britain, and Spain colonized much of the world, bringing international economic integration to unprecedented heights. These developments ushered in a new wave of European cities with global influence, including Amsterdam, London, Madrid, and Paris. Cultural exchange and global engagement continued to advance in major world cities during and after the Industrial Revolution, leading to the rise of modern notions of the global city in the twentieth century.
In the years leading up to World War I (1914–1918), worldwide economic integration continued to expand, and American cities began to join the established list of Old World cultural, economic, and political leadership centers. As an important nucleus of banking and finance, and as a primary immigration gateway, New York developed into a thriving hub of multicultural cosmopolitanism.
Globalization was arguably the definitive feature of the postwar era, and rapid economic modernization in the Middle East, South America, and Asia-Pacific regions brought international influence to a new generation of cities. In 1991, the Dutch American sociologist Saskia Sassen published The Global City, a landmark work built on the thesis that the world economy is driven by three key centers of economic and technological innovation: New York, London, and Tokyo. These definitive international integration features of these three metropolises became building blocks for the ensuing development of the contemporary concept of the global city.
Topic Today
Size is a significant factor in the designation of a given metropolis as a global city, but ranking methodologies tend to place a much higher priority on other aspects of a candidate city's character. Cultural diversity, economic growth and development, innovation and creativity, interconnectedness with the global economy, political influence, and the city's relative level of technological advancement are universally important evaluative criteria.
The consulting firm Kearney publishes an annual Global Cities Index that ranks cities using thirty-one metrics across five categories: business activity, cultural experience, human capital, information exchange, and political engagement. Kearney also publishes a Global Cities Outlook ranking, identifying cities poised for sustained innovation leadership and increased levels of global influence.
In 2016, the Brookings Institution adopted a new approach to classifying global cities. It moved beyond a generalized approach in favor of a more specialized and nuanced outlook, placing a higher priority on regional influence and looking at the specific ways in which major cities contribute to innovation and economic growth. The Brookings Institution used seven categories of global cities: Global Giants, Asian Anchors, Emerging Gateways, Factory China, Knowledge Capitals, American Middleweights, and International Middleweights. According to the institution, this classification methodology supported a more comprehensive analysis of the trends shaping the global economy while acknowledging that there are many ways in which cities influence the world beyond their boundaries. Its 2016 list of Global Giants included New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Osaka-Kobe, London, and Paris. The Brookings Institution considered ten specific characteristics of cities to be particularly important: global-oriented leadership, a legacy of maintaining an international outlook, the presence of globally significant economic specializations, adaptability to changes in the global economy, an established culture of innovation and learning, opportunity and international appeal, infrastructure that supports international connectivity, the ability to attract strategic investment, multiple levels of government support for globalized growth, and a well-established global identity. However, the program did not continue its activities past the late 2010s.
The Globalization and World Cities Research Network uses a tiered ranking system, which is topped by its Alpha ++ designation and descends through Alpha +, Alpha, Alpha -, Beta +, Beta, Beta -, Gamma +, Gamma, and Gamma -, with High Sufficiency and Sufficiency categories rounding out its classification scheme. In broad terms, Alpha-level cities are highly integrated, and represent important links between the world's leading economic regions and the global economy. Beta-level cities link second-tier economic regions to the global economy, or represent secondary links between leading economic regions and the global economy. Gamma-level cities link developing economic regions to the global economy, or represent tertiary links between leading economic regions on the global economy. Cities at the High Sufficiency and Sufficiency levels have enough services to function independently of global cities, but carry lesser levels of international influence. London and New York are commonly the only Alpha ++ cities, while Alpha + cities often include Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, and Tokyo. Examples of Alpha-level cities include Chicago, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles, Madrid, São Paulo, Seoul, Toronto, and Warsaw.
Bibliography
Clark, Greg. Global Cities: A Short History. Brookings Institution, 2016.
Clark, Greg. "How Cities Took Over the World: A History of Globalisation Spanning 4,000 Years." Guardian, 1 Dec. 2016, www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/dec/01/how-cities-took-over-the-world-a-history-of-globalisation-spanning-4000-years. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.
"Global Cities Revisited." Economist, 3 Oct. 2013, www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/10/geography-business. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.
"Global Cities 2024." Kearney, www.kearney.com/service/global-business-policy-council/gcr. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.
Sassen, Saskia. "The Global City: Introducing a Concept." Brown Journal of World Affairs, vol. 11, no. 2, 2015, pp. 27–43.
Trujillo, Jesus Leal, and Joseph Parilla. "Redefining Global Cities." Brookings Institution, 29 Sept. 2016, www.brookings.edu/research/redefining-global-cities. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.
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"World Cities 2024." Globalization and World Cities Research Network, gawc.lboro.ac.uk/gawc-worlds/the-world-according-to-gawc/world-cities-2024. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.