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Global City
A global city, also called world city or sometimes alpha city or world centre, is a city generally considered to be an important node in the global economic system. The concept comes from geography and urban studies, and the idea that globalisation can be understood as largely created, facilitated, and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade.
The most complex of these entities is the "global city", whereby the linkages binding a city have a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through socio-economic means. The use of "global city", as opposed to "megacity", was popularised by sociologist Saskia Sassen in her 1991 work, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo; although the term "world city", which refers to cities involved with large amounts of global business, dates to at least the May 1886 description of Liverpool, by The Illustrated London News. Patrick Geddes also used the term "world city" later in 1915. More recently, the term has been described as being synonymous with a city's influence and 'financial capital', with other factors becoming less relevant.
Criteria
Global city status is considered to be beneficial and desired, and because of this, many groups have tried to classify and rank which cities are seen as world cities or non-world cities. Although there is a consensus upon leading world cities, the criteria upon which a classification is made can affect which other cities are included. The criteria for identification tend either to be based on a yardstick value (e.g., if the producer-service sector is the largest sector then city X is a world city) or on an imminent determination (if the producer-service sector of city X is greater than the combined producer-service sectors of N other cities then city X is a world city.)
Cities can also fall from such categorization, as in the case of cities that have become less cosmopolitan and less internationally renowned in the current era.
Characteristics
Although what constitutes a world city is still subject to debate, standard characteristics of world cities are:
- A variety of international financial services, notably in finance, insurance, real estate, banking, accountancy, and marketing
- Headquarters of several multinational corporations
- The existence of financial headquarters, a stock exchange, and major financial institutions
- Domination of the trade and economy of a large surrounding area
- Major manufacturing centres with port and container facilities
- Considerable decision-making power on a daily basis and at a global level
- Centres of new ideas and innovation in business, economics, culture, and politics
- Centres of media and communications for global networks
- Dominance of the national region with great international significance
- High percentage of residents employed in the services sector and information sector
- High-quality educational institutions, including renowned universities, international student attendance, and research facilities
- Multi-functional infrastructure offering some of the best legal, medical, and entertainment facilities in the country
Variant Rankings
GaWC study
Together, Jon Beaverstock, Richard G. Smith and Peter J. Taylor established the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC). A roster of world cities was outlined in the GaWC Research Bulletin 5 and ranked cities based on their connectivity through four "advanced producer services": accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, and law. The GaWC inventory identifies three levels of global cities and several sub-ranks.
The 2004 rankings acknowledged several new indicators while continuing to rank city economics more heavily than political or cultural factors. The 2008 roster, similar to the 1998 version, is sorted into categories of "Alpha" world cities (with four sub-categories), "Beta" world cities (three sub-categories), "Gamma" world cities (three sub-categories) and additional cities with "High sufficiency" or "Sufficiency" presence. The following is a list of the cities in the rankings, as they appear on the GaWC website:
Alpha ++ Cities
Alpha ++ cities are cities most integrated with the global economy: London and New York City are the only two cities on the planet that currently hold an Alpha ++ status. Both these sister cities are English-speaking and both are also part of the world's leading 'Big Four' major fashion capitals, along with Paris and Milan. Both these two Alpha ++ cities are listed on the world's top 3 film location capitals, and both are major tourist cities with plenty of world cuisine, airports, Eurostar undersea rail connections, flagship designer stores, leading universities, business schools, English schools, and prestigious Royal academies of music, dance, drama, etc, have a range of state-of-the-art music arenas and sports stadiums, grand parks, events etc. Both cities have invested a lot in their powerful militaries. London has invested a lot on CCTV cameras everywhere and has more CCTV security than any other city in the world.
London also ranks in the world's top ten best student cities list and has the largest range of academies, colleges, universities and resources. London also has the highest amount of universities in Europe, with several of them ranking in the world's top ten best universities. London has the largest choice of musicals and theatre shows in London's Theatreland, as well as open-air theatres and opera singers along the canals during the summer, and open-air outdoor winter ice-skating facitilies at the Winter Wonderland in London's Hyde Park, Somerset House, etc.
London also invested in state-of-the-art flood defences that was the largest defence mechanism in the world when the Thames Flood Barrier was created. NYC may follow given the large flood problems they've experienced in recent years. London has invested in state-of-the-art modern skyscrapers that save on energy and Sir Norman Foster's Gherkin design in London is an intellectual building that can cool or warm itself. The world's first wind-turbine skyscraper was created in London to save energy. There is a rule in London that buildings do not exceed a certain height so not to disrupt fast communications and signals, and to not spoil the views over St Pauls Cathedral and St. Jame's Park, etc. Focus is more centred on the high quality and elegance in the design of skyscrapers, rather than its height, such as with the innovative Shard, Gherkin, Helter-Skelter, etc. London has a load of history and culture, but is also very innovative and modern."Cities give us collision. 'Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.”
"Cities have sexes: London is a gentleman, Paris is a female, and New York is metrosexual.''
"In London you'll soon learn how to destroy all of your social rivals."
London was founded by the Romans and has the world's oldest shopping mall, the world's oldest and deepest underground tube network, (also the second most extensive after the Shanghai Metro,) a massive taxi and bus network, trams, monorail, driverless hubs, DLR driverless trains, sky cable cars over the River Thames, under-river tunnels, a massive and beautiful St Pancras International rail station connecting Londoners under the sea via high speed rail to continental Europe, rail, road and pedestrian bridges over the River Thames, under-river underground network bridges, etc. London is conveniently situated on the Prime Meridian of time and is conveniently located inbetween eastern and western time-zones for trade and business, and has easy and fast access to other cities in Europe, etc.An influential American magazine has named London the global capital of the 21st century.
The new issue of New York magazine has paid homage to London, claiming the financial, cultural and culinary benefits available in London now tower over those of its home city New York. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ToRwN2gHho
London was voted by TripAdvisor for being the most fun city in Europe with over 300 tourist attractions in one city. London has been a trading centre long before New York even existed. London is the only city in the world to have hosted the international Olympics 3 times. Most of London's 200 museums are free entry, along with many of the art galleries too. London's Richmond Park is 3 times larger than NYC's Central Park though, and London has the largest financial districts in the world.The world in one city. "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. "
— Samuel Johnson
(A popular quote amongst millions of Londoners.) More people seek to move into London than people seeking to leave London, hence the very high cost of homes, council taxes, parking fees, public transport fees, food costs, and congestion charges to drive on the roads.)
Home prices, taxi rides, food and living costs is cheaper in NY though. Both Alpha ++ cities are also home to lots of A-list stars, leading supermodels, top bands, musicians, writers, film-producers, and iconic and influential people.
London is also the garden capital of the world and hosts the stylish Chelsea Flower Show every May and is home to Chelsea Physic Gardens, Kew Gardens (the world's largest collection of living plants.) There's 3 rainforests within London - one inside the world famous London Zoo, another inside the London Aquarium, and another inside Kew Gardens.
More money is spent on shopping in London than any other city in the world...
including on-line shopping too.
London also has the largest range and choice of flagship shops
and designer stores and markets in the world,
and holds the world's largest and oldest toy store (Hamley's,) Selfridges,
Liberty of London, Harrods, Covent Garden historic jewellery quarter,
Oxford St (busiest shopping street in Europe,) Bond St, Knightsbridge, etc.
As for the rest:
Alpha + cities are advanced service niches for the global economy: Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai, Dubai
Alpha level cities (sorted in to Alpha cities and Alpha- cities) are cities that link major economic regions into the world economy:
Alpha cities: Sydney, Săo Paulo, Milan, Chicago, Mexico City, Mumbai, Moscow, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Johannesburg, Madrid, Toronto, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul, Jakarta, Amsterdam, Brussels, Los Angeles
Alpha- cities: Dublin, Melbourne, Washington, New Delhi, Bangkok, Zurich, Vienna, Taipei, Buenos Aires, Stockholm, San Francisco, Guangzhou, Manila, Bogotá, Miami, Riyadh, Luxembourg, Santiago, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Lisbon
Beta level cities are cities that link moderate economic regions into the world economy and are classified into three sections, Beta + cities, Beta cities, and Beta- cities:
Beta + cities: Bangalore, Copenhagen, Rome, Cairo, Dallas, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Athens, Montreal, Philadelphia, Lima, Budapest, Berlin, Cape Town, Houston, Kiev, Bucharest, Beirut
Beta cities: Ho Chi Minh City, Auckland, Montevideo, Caracas, Vancouver, Chennai, Manchester, Oslo, Brisbane, Helsinki, Karachi, Doha, Casablanca, Stuttgart, Rio de Janeiro, Geneva
Beta- cities: Guatemala City, Lyon, Panama City, San Jose, Bratislava, Minneapolis, Tunis, Nairobi, Cleveland, Lagos, Abu Dhabi, Seattle, Hanoi, Sofia, Riga, Port Louis, Detroit, Calgary, Denver, Perth, Kolkata, San Diego, Amman, Antwerp, Manama, Birmingham, Nicosia, Quito, Rotterdam, Belgrade, Monterrey, Almaty, Shenzhen, Kuwait City, Hyderabad, Edinburgh
Gamma level cities are cities that link smaller economic regions into the world economy, and are sorted into three sections, Gamma + cities, Gamma cities, and Gamma- cities:
Gamma + cities: Zagreb, Lahore, Saint Petersburg, Jeddah, Durban, Santo Domingo, St. Louis, Islamabad, Guayaquil, Baltimore, San Salvador, Cologne, Phoenix, Adelaide, Bristol, Charlotte, Georgetown, Osaka, Tampa
Gamma cities: Glasgow, San Juan, Marseille, Guadalajara, Leeds, Baku, Vilnius, Tallinn, Raleigh, Ankara, Belfast, San José, Colombo, Valencia, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Muscat, Ljubljana
Gamma- cities: Nantes, Tianjin, Accra, Algiers, Gothenburg, Porto, Columbus, Utrecht, Orlando, Ahmedabad, Asunción, Kansas City, Seville, Turin, Dar es Salaam, Portland, Kraków, Managua, Pune, Leipzig, Malmö, La Paz
Sufficiency level cities are cities that have a sufficient degree of services so as not to be obviously dependent on world cities. Examples are Jerusalem and Harare.
Global Power City Index
The Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation in Tokyo issued a comprehensive study of global cities in 2016. The ranking is based on six overall categories, "Economy", "Research & Development", "Cultural Interaction", "Livability", "Environment", and "Accessibility", with 70 individual indicators among them. This Japanese ranking also breaks down top ten world cities ranked in subjective categories such as "manager, researcher, artist, visitor and resident".
Global Power City top 10: 1. London, 2. New York City, 3. Tokyo, 4. Paris, 5. Singapore, 6. Seoul, 7. Hong Kong, 8. Amsterdam, 9. Berlin, 10. Vienna
Global Cities Index
In 2008, the American journal Foreign Policy, in conjunction with the Chicago-based consulting firm A.T. Kearney and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, published a ranking of global cities, based on consultation with Saskia Sassen, Witold Rybczynski, and others. Foreign Policy noted that "the world’s biggest, most interconnected cities help set global agendas, weather transnational dangers, and serve as the hubs of global integration. They are the engines of growth for their countries and the gateways to the resources of their regions." The ranking is based on 27 metrics across five dimensions: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement and was updated in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Since 2015 it is published together with the Global Cities Outlook, a projection of a city’s potential based on rate of change in 13 indicators across four dimensions: personal well-being, economics, innovation, and governance.
Global Economic Power Index
In 2015, the second Global Economic Power Index, a "survey of the surveys" compiled by Richard Florida, was published by The Atlantic (to be differentiated from a namesake list published by the Martin Prosperity Institute), with cities ranked according to criteria reflecting their presence on 5 separate lists as published by 5 different entities.
The Wealth Report
"The Wealth Report" (a global perspective on prime property and wealth) is made by the London-based estate agent Knight Frank LLP together with the Citi Private Bank. The report includes a "Global Cities Survey", evaluating which cities are considered the most important to the world’s HNWIs (high-net-worth individuals, having over $25 million of investable assets). For the Global Cities Survey, Citi Private Bank’s wealth advisors, and Knight Frank’s luxury property specialists were asked to name the cities that they felt were the most important to HNWIs, in regard to: "economic activity", "political power", "knowledge and influence" and "quality of life".
Global City Competitiveness Index
In 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit (The Economist Group), ranked the competitiveness of global cities according to their demonstrated ability to attract capital, businesses, talent and visitors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city
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