Sassen’s Global City, in the heart of centrality

Saskia Sassen, 2001 (1991), The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo.

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6943.html

In the heart of centrality, this is, indeed, the subject of the book of Saskia Sassen. New York, London and Tokyo command the global-city network in the world, that is, the cities in which the biggest number of financial and economic transactions, cultural manifestations, and “pivotal” decisions are made (hence “central functions”). Los Angeles, Toronto, Sao Paolo, Paris, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Dubai, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore belong to this network of global cities.

One difference is to be made between the old empire cities and the new global cities: an empire city is, by definition, self-sufficient, concentrating all political, economic and cultural decisions of the empire it reigns over. On the contrary a global city may not exist without other global cities: interconnection and interdependence are stronger than disconnection.

Global cities, always-changing configurations which could confirm that centrality is rather a processus than a status.

k6943

 


You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search OpenEdition Search

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search