Throughout her article, Jennifer Robinson presents a strong argument against the concept of "global or world cities". To begin, she explains that urban scholars have studied the idea of the global city by dichotomizing the nation where a city is located by labelling it ‘third world’ or ‘West’. This dichotomy is problematic for many reasons, including the fact that it favors western principles and promotes the expansion of their hegemonic cultural presence. As Robinson explains, “‘Urban theory’ is based primarily on the experiences and histories of western cities — much as Chakrabarty (2000) suggests that the theories and categories of historical scholarship have been rooted both in western experiences and their intellectual traditions” (Robinson
Smith, D. A. (1996). Third World Cities in Global Perspective: The Political Economy of Uneven Urbanization. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press Inc.
Abu-Lughod, Janet L. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's Global Cities. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1999. Print.
Harm de Blij and his “The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization’s Rough Landscape” truly describes how geography is displayed in the world today. In particular on of the major themes that he discusses is the idea of globalization. He actually calls these people the “globals.” In the very beginning of his book he describes two different types of peoples: Locals and Globals. The difference between these people is that Locals are the poorer people, not as mobile, and more susceptible to the concept of place. On the other hand the Globals are the fortunate population, and are a small group of people who have experienced globalization firsthand (5). This idea of globalization is a main theme that Blij refers to throughout the book, however he also indirectly references the five themes of cultural geography: culture regions, cultural diffusion, cultural interaction, cultural ecology, and cultural landscapes. Through Blij’s analysis these five themes are revealed in detail and help explain his overall idea of globalization in the world today.
Ritze, George, and Zeynep Atalay. Readings in Globalization: Key Concepts and Major Debates. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print.
World cities are cities that have global and national significance, the nature and spatial distribution of these dominating world cities within the global village are determined by various factors.
Welcome to college! You can only afford to maintain two of the next three options: adequate sleep, a social life, and good grades. In Dani Rodrik’s new book- The Globalization Paradox, a similar triangle is evinced. The author presents us with a “trilemma” consisting of Hyperglobalization, Democratic politics, and the Nation-State. You can efficiently balance two of these three triangle “corners”– but no more than two. Rodrik claims our current worldview on globalization is that the more of it- the merrier. Yet this is flawed thinking in the fact that bigger globalization isn’t necessarily better globalization, instead we need to strive for “smart” globalization over “maximum” globalization. Rodrik uses a vast amount of real world events, past and present theories, and statistics as evidence. In this essay I will first give a brief overview of Rodrik’s main argument and his evidence supporting it. Moreover, I will attempt to compare Rodrik’s argument(s) to Friedman’s. Finally, I will analyze the specific claim Rodrik makes (and one I found most interesting) concerning hyperglobalization’s hindrance on national democracies.
Meijers, E. (2005). Polycentric Urban Regions and the Quest for Synery: Is a Network of Cities More than the Sum of the Parts?, 42(4), 765-781. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00420980500060384
Urbanization as a Social Problem How is urbanization negatively impacting our society? The answer to this question is not a simple one. This essay will not only break down the problems of urbanization in the United States, but it will also tell you some of the attempts made to fix the problem and give some solutions as to how it could possibly be solved in the future. Also, when answering this question one must understand that urbanization, can not be stopped, but only contained in a manner that will help the United States to function better as a country. The more densely populated and more heterogeneous a community is, the more accentuated characteristics can be associated with urbanism.
Susan S. Fainstein, Scott Campbell. 2003. Readings in Urban Theory. Second Edition. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
There are many differences surrounding the urbanization in the Third World versus urbanization in the First World. Although many of these developing countries are highly urbanized they all share a pattern of uneven development that is much more extreme than that found in the older, developed nations (Gottdiener & Hutchison, 2011, p. 283). According to Smith and Timberlake (1993), the main differences between developed and developing nations are factors such as: elite power, state policies, integration into the global economy, and the effects of class structure.
The geographers argue that cities had suffered a transformation with the apparition of globalization (Newman & Thornley, pp.02; Da Cunha, et al., 2012, pp. 69). Consequently, the City Councils had readjusted the local policies to make their cities competitive within the global cities framework. Contrarily, the lack of adjustment to global city patterns. might cause difficulties for cities to participate in this global system.
Urbanization is the process of life for many and the desired way of life for many others. Human beings both inhabit urban and rural areas today all over the world. Many people may be disappointed with the development of an increasing number of urban areas. Many peoples once rural areas are now swallowed up directly as cities sprawl outward. The effects of urbanization both positive and negative get examined in the following paragraphs. In addition, who is most effected by urbanization and who plays a role in preventing and/or properly planning development will also be revealed. Anthropology wears many hats in the world today. Human society gets impacted directly by the decisions made by countries or government agencies with the assistance of anthropologist. Let’s begin to examine where we are and where we are going with urbanization.
In order to address the claim that we live in a global world, there are key factors that we must consider. The factors included in this essay are: the effect of globalisation on the different cultures spread throughout the world, the effect that globalisation has had on our national governments, and more negative effects such as how globalisation has allowed for a larger emergence of suicide terrorism. There are three main thought processes surrounding globalisation, and these are the ideas of the hyperglobalisers, the transformationalists, and the sceptics. Hyperglobalisers would suggest that as a result of globalisation, governments and national bodies are losing their authority, and that we have entered a new era. Transformationalists’ views
... both globalization and localization have positive and negative effects in terms of spatial sociology. Globalization of space is creating networks of global cities to boost economic activity, meanwhile, globalization of space creates spatial hierarchy. Localization of space supports people who are fighting with other group if social cohesion is achieved, however, localization of space creates some dangerous areas such as slums and this issue is hard to be solved. Hence, it is difficult to decide which concept is superior to the other. Alternatively, glocalization takes a middle position between globalization and localization by mixing both concepts. That’s why glocalization is worth applying for space sociologically as there is a possibility of including upsides of both globalization and localization even though it may include negative effects of the two concepts.
Global cities are cities with substantial economic power, controlling the concentration and accumulation of capital and global investments. Despite this, global cities are the sites of increasing disparities in occupation and income. This is as a result of large in-migration and growing income inequality together with capacity and resource constraints, and inadequate Government policies.