Theoretical and Empirical Interest in World Cities - Essay Example

Theoretical and Empirical Interest in World Cities To make an approach to define a world city in the simplest way is to describe it as a city that is widely considered as an essentially important center of the cultural, political, and especially economic system exercised all round the globe. There are a huge number of perspectives in which the world/global cities are ahead of the other urban regions or territories in the world. The list of these perspectives includes trade, finance, administration, cultural progress, educational revolution, transport and mass media. It is quite natural that the world cities exert influence on the rest of the world. However, the fact remains that the concept of a ‘world city’ is not so simple as this. Often referred to as ‘global city’ or sometimes as ‘alpha city’, a world city happens to be a very significant and important node point in the entire system of global economy. It has been a subject to researches and empirical studies since long, and is one of the most researched areas in the field of urban studies. Geography and urban studies are what the concept of world cities originates from, while globalization is the basis of this concept, considering the fact that the idea of globalization takes into account the hierarchy of the geographic locales in respect of importance to the operation of the global system. It is not that a concept is formed in a day, especially when it concerns as vast an idea as ‘global/world city’. The development of the concept of world cities may not be as old as the global cities themselves. Again, it has also to be kept in mind that the idea of a world city is not just like another of the thousand novel concepts that should better be described as the byproducts of globalization in the modern age. The development of the concept of a world city or a global city has quite a long and rich history. The volume of research works by scholars in all countries in the world and the growing interest in the concept of world city testify to its immense importance in the world of empirical studies. The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss the factors related to the development of the concept of world city, and also to discuss the contemporary research that provides new insights into the hierarchy of world cities. Before we start exploring the development of the concept of world city, we have to understand that development of the general ideas about a world city and the development of empirical interests in the concept of world/global cities are not the same. The idea of a world city has, perhaps, been in existence ever since people of one city have been aware of the existence as well as prosperity of other cities in the world. The cultural and economic glory and richness of the city of Troy was known to as well as appreciated by people of other cities in all countries. Rome became the center of cultural, artistic and educational advancement, and the entire world was influenced by this city, and therefore, it was a world city. With such general concept of world city, Alexandria of ancient Egypt can also be one such world city. It is true that these cities have influenced the culture, economy and politics of the lion’s share of the world, if not in entirety. But, such consideration does not have any empirically researched and established testification. The development of theoretical and empirical interest in the concept of world cities is, however, not so old. In his Where We Stand: A Decade Of World City Research(1995), John Friedmann refers to Barnet and Muller (1974) to state that it was in the 1970s that the global economy came to be seriously and academically regarded as an ‘interlocking system of production and markets.’ He also adds “the significance of these theoretical developments for the study of urbanization was not recognized until the early 1980s (Cohen 1981; Friedmann and Wolff 1982)” (Friedmann, J. 1995). What Friedmann says is true, considering that he is speaking of empirical urban study, strictly adhering to the academic norms and specific practices. However, we can refer to David Clark who in his book Urban World/Global City states that “one hundred years ago, in 1899, Adna Ferrin Weber submitted a Ph.D. thesis to Colombia University on The Growth of Cities in the Nineteenth Century. This masterpiece of data collection, analysis and explanation was the first comprehensive attempt to document and understand urban phenomenon at the global scale. It identified variations in levels of urban development around the world and explored in detail the social and economic differences between town and country. Weber’s work was a seminal contribution to the understanding of cities and was responsible for establishing urban study as a central focus of enquiry in the newly emerging discipline of geography” (Clark, D., 1996). Now, considering the fact that development of the empirical concept of world city concerns the urban studies at an academic level, and is much dependent on it, we may not agree with what Friedmann opined. Again we also have to take under consideration another fact that there was not much of remarkable research work in urban studies till the 1970s. What all these facts imply is that though empirical urban studies along with the concept of world/global city existed even a century ago, scholars did not give the subject much of attention until the 1970s. It is not that researchers took interest in the concept of world city all of a sudden. With globalization becoming the keyword in the last three decades of the 20th century there was a platform for empirical interest in the concept of world cities and researches in urban studies. A number of scholars in the 1980 did some very serious study of the cities in the context of globalization. Had there not been the two World Wars in the first half of the 20th century, the development of theoretical and empirical interest in ‘world cities’ or ‘global cities’ would have progressed a lot more than it is in its present condition. Let us now explore into the theories that came to be formed as a result of the growing interest in the empirical urban studies concentrating on the concept of world city. Though there have been many research works by scholars from all over the world, Saskia Sassen’s The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo is treated as the Bible in the field of world city research. It is perhaps impossible to find a research work on any perspective of world city, which has not referred to Sassen’s work. Sassen organized the theorization of the world/global city through seven hypotheses. It is essential to refer to Sassen’s hypotheses with special importance since these are considered to be extremely important so far as the development of theoretical and empirical interest in world cities is concerned. In addition to this, these theories have been practically applied for further research in associated areas of studies. These hypotheses by themselves give an impression or idea about the hierarchy of world cities. What is even more important they have given a much wider scope for finding as well as establishing the characteristics of world cities. While discussing the conceptual issues related to the idea of world city in Where We Stand: A Decade of World City Research (1995), Friedmann is found to be very clearly reflecting the hypotheses of Sassen. In her later works also Sassen herself refers to her own hypothesis concerning world cities. And, as it has been said earlier, these hypothetical concepts along with the theorization that the set of hypotheses resulted in, have been applied by scholars to explore and assess the hierarchy of world cities. One of Sassen’s world city hypotheses implies that the world cities, rather the world city regions, are the commanding nodes of the entire global system, and they can be arranged into a ‘hierarchy of spatial articulations’, especially taking into account the economic power that they hold as well as command (Sassen, S., 1991). But Friedmann finds out that arranging the global cities or the world cities in a hierarchical order is not very easy a task. He says, “At the top we find the cities that are the subject of Saskia Sassen’s researches: the command and control centres of the global economy, New York, London, and Tokyo (Sassen 1991). After that, the going becomes more contentious because we lack unambiguous criteria for assigning particular cities to a specific place in the global system” (Friedmann, J. 1995). However, the fact remains that the world economy is characterized by such volatile and changing situations that it is hardly possible to make a fixed arrangement of a hierarchy of the world cities since the stability of such hierarchy is going to disappear with a recession or some other economic disaster, and none can guarantee that such things are not going to happen. What is even more significant in this regard is that the hierarchical relations between the cities, whether they are world cities or not, are basically mutual relations of power, influence and dominance. Since these things are not stable in the sense that a city can rise to power in terms of economy, politics, business, culture and other aspects that criteria of being a world city takes into account. And, it can fall from its position due to some unavoidable phenomenon. What these factors lead to is the idea that the hierarchy of world cities may undergo change and reformation. But, it is also important to figure out the characteristic criteria that a city has to have in order to be a world city or a global city. A major share of the further researches in the field of urban studies was directed to fixing the criteria of a world city. The characteristics of a world city are generally categorized into four types – economic, political, cultural and infrastructural. So far as the economic characteristics of a world city are concerned, the perspectives to be taken into account are number as well as grade of corporate headquarters for multinational corporations, stock exchanges, law firms and other financial institutions. The quality of financial service provisions, financial capacity of the city, personal wealth of the inhabitants, the number of billionaires and also the cost of living in the city are to be taken into account in deciding if the city is a world city or not. To fulfill the financial or economic criteria of being a world city, a city has to show that it has strong influence on other major cities in almost all parts of the world, especially in respect of the factors just mentioned. To consider the political aspects, a world city must also influence the world affairs and international events with those in itself. The presence of headquarters for organizations of international level is a must. Culture is perhaps the most important one among the characteristics that make a world city out of otherwise just another important urban area with global exposure. Since, the concept of world city has to do a lot with globalization, and culture is what is considered to have triggered as well as propelled the progress of globalization, whether a city is a world city or a global city or not is much dependent on its culture and its cultural influence on those of other cities all across the world. For instance, London, New York and Tokyo is known to the common global people partly because of their economic and political importance but mainly because they ways their cultural habits have influenced these people. One can easily recollect that the culture of the American cities influenced the world so strongly that a new word came to be formed to describe such influence – ‘Americanization’. The word ‘dominance’ appears to be quite relevant in this regard because this is the word that describes best the impact or influence of the world cities on other cities or any other place in the world. And it is this very word that implies that there exists a hierarchy of world cities. This hierarchy may be subject to change in course of time with other cities becoming more powerful in the perspectives of economy, politics, culture and infrastructure. But, in that case it would be a new hierarchy of world cities, considering which cities fulfill the criteria of a world city best; but the hierarchy continues. References: 1. Friedmann, J. 1995. 'Where We Stand: A Decade of World City Research' 2. Clark, D., 1996. ‘Urban World/Global City’. 2nd Edition, 2003. New York. Routledge 3. Sassen, S. 1991. ‘The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo’. New Jersey. Princeton University Press Read More