CHAPTER 7
The Global City
Intended Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this lesson, learners must be able to:
1. Gain a fuller and a more solid understanding about the concept of a Global City and the other
ideas associated with it;
2. Be able to analyze the importance and significance of the Global City in the realm of economic,
political and socio-cultural dimensions of the contemporary global setting;
3. Be able to correlate the Concept of a Global City within the greater construct of Globalization; and
4. Equip the students with 21st century learning and develop higher order thinking skills that will lead
towards a deeper understanding of the subject matter and correlate the topic with the Philippines.
A. What is a Global City?
• Global City (a.k.a. Alpha City or World City)
▪ It is a highly globalized city with the most concentrations of firms, capital and talent. ▪ It
is a city that serves as an important center for business, global trade, finance, tourism and
globalization to exist.
• Global cities are considered as the building blocks of globalization.
• Six cities stand out. The Big Six includes London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and
Singapore.
Lon
don New York Paris
Tok
yo Hong Kong Singapore
• The illustration below shows the typology of the order of cities by classification:
The New World Order of Cities
Source: Cities Research Center, 2015
B. Essential Traits of a Global City
1. Headquarters of several multinational corporations.
2. The existence of financial headquarters, a stock exchange, and major financial institutions.
3. Major manufacturing centers with port and container facilities.
4. Centers of new ideas and innovation in business, economics, culture, and politics.
5. Center of media and communications for global networks.
6. High percentage of residents employed in the services sector and information sector.
7. High quality educational institutions, including renowned universities, international student
attendance and research facilities.
8. Multi-functional infrastructure offering some of the best legal, medical, and entertainment
facilities in the world.
9. High diversity in language, culture, religion, and ideologies.
C. How Global Cities are Evaluated?
• Global Cities Index – it examines the current
performance of cities based on five dimensions:
business activity, human capital, information
exchange, cultural experience, and political
engagement.
• Global Cities Outlook – it evaluates a city’s potential
based on the following four dimensions: personal
well-being, economics, innovation, and governance.
• The list below shows the Top 25 Global Cities for 2017:
D. The Negative Tendencies of Global Cities
RANK CITY
1 New York RANK CITY
2 London 14 Berlin
3 Paris 15 Melbourne
4 Tokyo 16 Toronto
5 Hong Kong 17 Sydney
6 Singapore 18 Moscow
7 Chicago 19 Shanghai
8 Los Angeles 20 Vienna
9 Beijing 21 Boston
10 Washington, D.C. 22 Amsterdam
11 Brussels 23 San Francisco
12 Seoul 24 Barcelona
13 Madrid 25 Istanbul
1. There will be a concentration of wealth in the hands of owners,
partners, and professionals associated with the high-end firms.
2. There will be a growth of a large poor population that has a very hard
time earning a living in the marketplace because of the high-end
activities.
E. Global City and Mobility
• An increasing migration tendency and the desire to live in the cities
also bring several problems. One of these problems is mobility of
people.
• Traffic is indeed a problem especially in highly populated cities.
• Traffic congestion is increasingly becoming a global issue, with drivers spending nearly 50% of their
driving time in traffic in some cities around the world.
• The Philippines is no exception. In Manila, traffic is worsening
and according to a study done by the Boston Consulting
Group, motorists and commuters
get stuck in traffic for an average of 66 minutes daily.
▪ The said study conducted in 2017 places Metro
Manila as 3rd worst in the Southeast Asian region,
with an average of 66 minutes stuck in traffic daily.
It comes after Bangkok, Thailand which is said to
have the worst traffic (72 minutes), and 2nd worst
Jakarta, Indonesia (68 minutes).
▪ The worsening traffic in Metro Manila now costs Php3.5 billion in lost opportunities per
day, highlighting the need for new and modern infrastructure to ease congestion
according to a study made by Japan International Cooperation Agency.
• The best performers in terms of traffic are Singapore (30 minutes) and Hong Kong (35 minutes),
two Asian states considered as global cities.
F. READ ONLY: Can we do a “Singapore”? (page 172, Convergence by Coronacion and Calilung)
