Atlantic Community:Global Must Read Article "What Makes a 'Global' City? "

What Makes a 'Global' City?

The 2008 Global Cities Index | Foreign Policy | December 2008

Today globalization takes place in places where masses of people live and work: in cities. But in order to earn the title "global" a city must provide ideas and value that impact the rest of the world. Additionally, global cities are characterized by bigger financial centers, the best universities, diverse inhabitants, the best exchange of information, the most influential international organizations, and the inclusion of the city's economic structures in the global network. This enables the city's inhabitants to benefit from global integration and even set world wide trends.

Number one in the ranking is New York. The financial capitol of the world leads due to its network of multinational companies and through the innovation of its diverse inhabitants. Following New York are London, Paris and Tokyo. So far the usual suspects are in the lead, but new competitors are close on their heels. Hong Kong scores in place 5 with its strong financial market, Singapore with its role as an economic center, and Chicago (8) with its human capitol. Beijing (12), Moscow (19) and Dubai (27), once isolated societies, now join the ranks of leading metropolises. Although Washington DC finished 11th, it easily topped New York, Paris and Brussels as the leader in global policy.

This summary was prepared by the Atlantic Community editorial team from "The 2008 Global Cities Index" published here by Foreign Policy, November/December 2008.

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Thu, Dec 25th 2008, 06:56

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The specialization of Global Cities help. I am quite in agreement here. But a global city would necessarily have to be cosmopolitan (something that many space-fantasy movies try to capture when they show the inter-galactic crowd of rather strange looking strangers, at space-stations). Where an artist can walk as easily and as peacefully as a technocrat - where they would even stop for a while and exchange hellos and move on - till the technocrat needs the artist or the artist nees the technocract. Where people can breathe easily - from across the globe. A city of strangers that trust one another? The bon homie of starngers equally at ease - from across the globe and across professional specializations! One supposes that any city that gives that sense of being a perfect stranger - at home - in the city to the global community of: policy-makers, artists, technocrats, businesses, etc. would be a global city. One of course discounts the extreme versions of multi-culturalism that allows someone to defecate in public - on the streets or pavements, metro-stations, sub-ways, etc. - as that group's local culture sought to be registered in such global cities as part of multiculturalism and tolerance!

Sat, Jan 17th 2009, 17:07

Anabel Seaman

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Total agree with you. It seems somehow far the necessity of integrate and embrace "the global way", but indeed is not. Any city, any country that apply this change will survive anything ahead in the future .

Thu, Aug 19th 2010, 12:34

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