WORLD CITIES



WORLD CITIES

The Nature, character and spatial distribution of World Cities

WORLD CITY- is a large city that has outstripped its national urban network and become part of a international Global System. They are centres of political power, world trade and communications, leaders in banking and finance; they stage world entertainment and sporting spectaculars and house the HQ’s of TNC’s and NGO’s like the UN headquarters. They are the command centres in the borderless domain of the new global economy.

• Most World cities are in the developing world and are referred to as Mega Cities as they have National but not Global power. There are 22 mega cities many facing challenges

• The Alpha world Cities are:

- London

- Paris

- New York

- Tokyo

- Chicago

- Frankfurt

- Hong Kong

- Los Angeles

- Milan

- Singapore

• World Cities are found in North America, Western Europe and Pacific Asia

• World cities are service centres

The Operation of Global Networks

• The breaking down of barriers between nations and the increasing integration of economies

• The growth of TNC’s – largely based in Europe, Japan and the USA

• The growth of trade

• The increasing mobility of labour both skilled and unskilled but especially highly skilled

• The increasing flow of capital e.g. over $1500billion per day

• The increasing influence of Media networks on the information people receive and on culture

• An increasing gap between the developing and the developed worlds especially in relation to technology

• A global urban hierarchy and a system of world cities based on the presence of information based activities such as accounting, finance, information technologies, advertising, management consulting

• New Air travel technology. New aircrafts will be able to carry 800-1000 passengers and still reduce the costs of flying. The 3 most important cities for international flight are London, Tokyo and New York

• The Chunnel connects UK to France and the TGV connects Paris to Lyon. Reduces traffic congestion and air quality

• Containerisation in the 60s enabled cargo to be handled quickly and efficiently and this resulted in a reduction in costs. They can be transferred easily to rail, road or sea

• Access to transport and communication technologies reinforce the spatial pattern of world cities that has emerged. New telecommunication technologies together tithe the international service and finance (increasing merging and dominance of TNC’s) are further strengthening the dominance of a small number of world cities as they extend their research to all corners of the world.

• Internet Users

- Europe: 50 million

- Africa/Middle East: 5 million

- Asia/Pacific: 45 million

- North America: 110 million

- Latin America: 10 million

• 500 million mobile phones

Dominance and Dependency relationships between world cities and Urban Centres

• The major world cities are linked 24/7

• They are linked by:

- airline flights

- Email origin and destination

- Fax origin and destination

- Mobile phone origin and destination

- Shipping movements origin and destination

- Internet log on rate, origin and destination

- Foreign investment, origin and destination

- Tourism

- Media

The Changing Role or Regional Centres

• Cascade effect through the Urban System: from National level to the regional level and then to the local level

• Marked reduction in services

• Economic restructuring in both the public and private sector has had considerable influence on the growth or otherwise of regional cities, making exports more competitive on world markets

• Advantages for regional cities include:

- lower operating and land costs

- fewer restraints on effluent disposal

- higher productivity

- reduced staff turnover

- lower levels of union involvement

• Large regional shopping centres have contributed to the demise of the local, small town retailer. They have more choice and lower prices.

• National Centres such as Sydney have on the whole continued to grow. In 2000 Sydney grew by 1.3% this was largely due to overseas immigration

• Regional Centres such as Dubbo have also experienced a growth in population. Regional centres have a population between 11000 and 50000. There growth is caused by the movement of people from smaller country towns, or in the case of coastal settlements, people moving out of Sydney (Counterurbanisation)

• The sea change growth took off in the 1990s and continues to be an important feature of population distribution and change

• Regional centres have fewer functions than national centres and have a smaller hinterland

The Demise of the Small town

• Recent developments have made it more difficult for small towns to survive

• Losing the infrastructure necessary to maintain a viable community

• Gulargambone 130km north of Dubbo has a population of 489. In 1991 its population was 490 and in 1996 it was 461. It is experiencing little or no growth.

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Nth America- NY

Chicago

Ottawa

(Canada)

Miami

Sth America Cities

San Fran and LA

Western European Core- London

Paris

Lisbon

Bonn

African Cities

East Europe: e.g. Prague and Moscow

Asia Pacific

Core: Tokyo

Bangkok

Hong Kong

Beijing

Sydney

NZ

Singapore

Kuala Lumpa

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