Cities in Globalization

This paper highlights two evidence-based views in understanding the nature of cities in globalization. The first view is that cities are forming a world city network with a particular geography that is city-centered (command power remaining in core-located cities and network power in non-core cities) to impinge on future social change. This world city network is a part of globalization processes that are inevitable and irreversible. It is conceptualized as an interlocking network with cities as the nodes in spaces of flows linking localities in the whole network. It constitutes the knowledge constellations for the production of services, and agencies, such as business firms, as the sub-nodal level that creates and provides the services as the prime agency of network production and reproduction. US cities are command power centers but are always most strongly connected to other cities within the US (dominance of space of places) and less prominent in the world city network (prominence of spaces of flows) – a pattern of emerging freedom of cities, especially those in weak states. The world city network is not inherently regressive in nature; it can service global capital as well as create a new economical politics (concern for networks of trade and finance) operating through the principles of cooperation and mutuality.