MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY

GENERAL SANTOS CITY

GEC 103 – THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

GLOBAL CITY

A Written Report submitted to:

PROF. JOY CALVA

PRESENTED BY THE STUDENTS OF GEC 103 - 1.1K

MICHAEL JEFF PEÑALOSA

Leader

ZCARINA LOUISE BATOLBATOL

MARIELLEN IRISH CASADOR

IAN MANSUETO

ADRIENNE MIRITZA MORENO

MICHAEL SOMO

Members

0|Global City
 DISCUSSION

For the first time in history, the majority of the world’s population has been living in

cities. According to the United Nations (2018), 55% of the people lives in urban areas, and by

2050, it will be expected to increase into 68%. Urbanization, or the process by which large

numbers of people migrate from rural to urban areas, has been the key factor in the rapidly

growing cities in the world. As the world continues to urbanize, sustainable and cultural

development will depend on the management of urban growth and the so-called global cities.

A global city is considered to be an important node in the global economic system. In this

report, a thorough discussion about global cities as a whole, its benefits, and its challenges is

presented.

Defining Global City

Global city is an urban focus that appreciates noteworthy upper hands and that fills in

as a center point inside a globalized financial framework. The term has its roots in research on

urban communities completed amid the 1980s, which analyzed the regular qualities of the

world's most imperative urban communities. Nonetheless, with expanded consideration being

paid to procedures of globalization amid ensuing years, these world urban areas came to be

known as worldwide urban communities. Connected with globalization was the possibility of

spatial redesign and the speculation that urban communities were getting to be key loci inside

worldwide systems of creation, money, and media communications. In a few details of the

worldwide city proposal, at that point, such urban communities are the building squares of

globalization. At the same time, these urban communities were winding up recently favored

destinations of nearby legislative issues inside the setting of a more extensive task to

reconfigure state foundations.

Urban areas are focuses of advancement and organizations. They depict the financial,

social, and political condition of the nation and its kin. Urban communities are sorted

contrastingly relying upon the job they play on the worldwide scene. Even though the city of

Tokyo is the biggest on the planet with a populace of around 38,000,000, it is viewed as an

1|Global City
Alpha + city, one dimension underneath the urban communities of New York and London

which are viewed as Alpha ++ urban communities. Other Alpha + urban areas incorporate

Shanghai, Tokyo, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris, and Beijing. To be viewed as a

worldwide city, an urban focus must demonstrate it appreciates a critical worldwide favorable

position over different urban communities and fills in as a center point inside the world

monetary framework. At first, worldwide urban communities were positioned relying upon

their size. Today, a few different factors other than the measure of the city are being considered.

Amsterdam, Houston, Mexico City, Paris, São Paulo and Zurich have all become worldwide

urban areas. These urban areas have a few comparable attributes including Home to a few

money related specialist co-ops and foundations, base camp to huge multinationals, overwhelm

the exchange and economy of their nations and are a noteworthy center point for air, land and

ocean transport. They are likewise focus of advancement, brag of all-around created

framework, substantial populace of utilized individuals and go about as the focuses of

correspondence of worldwide news.

As indicated by the A.T. Kearney's Worldwide Urban communities Record 2017, New

York outflanked London as the world's best-performing city while the last positioned second.

Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong pursued individually. The city of San Francisco topped the

Worldwide Urban communities Standpoint List in front of New York, Paris, London, and

Boston individually. New York was positioned the best city for business exercises, and human

capital. Paris beat the best urban communities for data trade while London was evaluated the

best city for a social affair. Washington, D.C. the best city for political commitment. Hong

Kong gloats of being a worldwide innovator in airship cargo while Brussels brags of being the

best spot to set up an international haven.

The expansion in worldwide urban areas is connected to the globalization of economies

and the centralization of large-scale manufacturing inside urban focuses. The two elements

have prompted the development of systems of exercises that look to satisfy the administration

and money related necessities of multinationals. The urban communities develop to end up

worldwide while others endure deindustrialization or stagnation of their economies.

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 Regardless of assuming noteworthy jobs in the worldwide economy, worldwide city

proposition has been known for being a danger to state-driven points of view. These urban

communities have been blamed for centering their compass to other worldwide urban areas

and dismissing urban communities inside the national effort. These urban areas are more

associated with the outside world than to their household economy. Even though they are

interconnected and associated, worldwide urban communities are dependably in an aggressive

state. The urban areas of New York and London have been endeavoring to outsmart each other

as the worldwide money related focuses. Neighborhood governments have been quick to

advance the worldwide urban communities inside their regions as either monetary or social

focuses, or destinations of development.

Studying Global Cities

So far, much of the analysis of globalization in previous lessons has looked at how

internationalism shaped modern world politics. We also examined cultural movements like K-

pop, and how they spread through media like the internet. What this lesson will emphasize,

however, is that globalization is spatial. This statement means two things.

First, globalization is spatial since it happens in physical spaces. You can see it when

foreign investments and capital move through a city, and when organizations assemble high

rises. Individuals who are working in these organizations or Filipinos working abroad-begin to

buy or lease skyscraper apartment suite units and better homes. As every one of these occasions

occurs, increasingly destitute individuals are driven out of city centers to clear a path for the

new developments.

Second, globalization is spatial because what makes it move is the fact that it is based

in places. Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, is where movies are made for global

consumption. The main headquarters of Sony is in Tokyo, and from there, the company

coordinates the sales of its various electronics goods to branches across the world. In other

words, cities act on globalization and globalization acts on cities. They are the sites as well as

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the mediums of globalization. Just as the internet enables and shapes global forces, so too do

cities.

In the years to come, more and more people will experience globalization through

cities. In 1950, only 30 percent of the world lived in urban areas. By 2014, that number

increased to 54 percent. And by 2050, it is expected to reach 66 percent. This lesson studies

globalization through the living environment of a rapidly increasing number of people.

Indicators for Globality

The principal trait of the numerous aspect of the global city is economic power. The

trait of a global city is a lively cultural scene, including film festivals, a thriving music or

theater scene, art galleries and street performers, cultural institutions such as museums and

universities and several powerful and influential media outlets with an international reach.

Frost (2009), define that the economic power is the ability to control and induce the actions

and manners of others due to deliberate and politically motivated use of economic assets. That

is why Sassen (1990) is still accurate about her opinion that economic power has fundamentally

ascertains in which cities are global. One of the city which is globally and economically wealth

is New York City which has the largest stock market in the world for it is the major center for

financial innovation. However, Tokyo dwells the most number of corporate headquarters

specifically with 613 companies and this city also is the key provider of unprocessed capital

consequently creates large commercial banks while New York has only 217 company

headquarters. Shanghai, on the other hand, may slightly far from the stock market of New York

and Tokyo yet when China grow to be the manufacturing center of the world it plays a vital

role in the global economic chain of the sources of raw materials and finish products. Shanghai

has the world’s occupied container port with over 33 million container units in 2013. Dani and

Szuts (2018), depicts that Shanghai will be the “city of the future” and this is the final version

of the plan of Mandarin people until 2040 and be entitled as “Shanghai 2040”. Besides, London

and Paris belongs to the global city also. London is the international banking and financial

4|Global City
center of the world and Paris is also a global financial center due to the structural features of

its banking and financial system (Yücel, 2000).

Global city opportunities are possible to attract skills and talents throughout the world.

In Asia, a lot of top IT programmers and Engineers have been hired in San Francisco Bay Area.

For Filipinos, London is still the preferred place to work with nursing degrees. The Economist

Intelligence Unit has subjective criteria to measure the economic competitiveness of a city.

They measure the market size, purchasing power of citizens, size of the middle class and

potential for growth. Authority is also the center of global city. The seat of American State

power is the Washington D.C. but as not as wealthy as New York because people dominantly

know that they has the famous landmark. The center of politics is the cities that dwells major

international organizations. Powerful political hubs and international affairs generate

influences for their own countries. That is why every city who made decisions can affect the

political economy of an entire continent and beyond.

Global cities are centers of higher learning and culture. A city's intellectual influence

could be seen through the influence of its publishing industry and also its education. Most of

the books that we read are from places like New York, London and Paris. New York Times is

way far from being a local newspaper, because it is read not just across America but it is also

read all over the world. Many teenagers moves over other cities because of the leading English-

language universities. Currently education is Australia's third largest export. In 2015, the

Australian government reported that it made as much as 19.2 billion Australian dollars from

education alone.

A global city which wraps them to the idealistic thoughts is made by their cultural

power. The medium that makes a city culturally empowered and centered are rather intangible

and complicated. This is due to a number of factors such as its location, architectural heritage,

rich history and a vibrant intellectual and artistic community. One of it is the chaotic

phenomena brought by the cultural urban centers which was promoted and cultivated by

municipal and national governments (McAdams, 2007). In New York, a network of major

cultural institutions is Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts

and their media. The media of New York in terms of music several songs about the city was

5|Global City
being composed like the famous song “New York, New York” sung by Frank Sinatra. Hence,

New York is a global center for the television, music and newspaper industries.

In a global city, one can create a new and unique product from different parts of the

world and because of their popularity they can easily gain and attract customers or suppliers

because of the very good background of their city. Since modernization creates new supply of

products and ease the commerce of the global economy, global cities are expected to become

more powerful economically and culturally diverse.

The Challenges of Global Cities

For any concept, may it be very beneficial to the society, trials always arise. As stated

earlier, a sustainable and cultural development will be greatly influenced by the management

of a global city. If it is poorly managed, it will bring about various problems that might be

difficult to act upon. According to McCarney (2002), as global cities become more deeply

integrated, the challenges they confront must be regarded as globally linked. In today’s times,

cities all around the globe are the main aspects to produce a sustainable and thriving world.

According to John Wilmoth, director of the United Nations Department of Economic

and Social Affairs’ Population Division, the management of urban areas is one of the most

crucial development challenges of the 21st century. The outcome in building sustainable cities

will be a major factor in the success of the post-2015 UN development agenda. At first glance,

global cities offer a lavish and cosmopolitan lifestyle for the people. But in reality, not

everyone can benefit, causing great poverty to individuals who were already suffering from a

difficult status in life.

Cities introduce the greatest concentration of social and environmental challenges on

the world. In a report of the British Council and Social Enterprise UK, eight challenges of

global cities were presented.

6|Global City
 British Council’s Framework in the Challenges of a Global City

The first one is employment. As the population is continually growing, so is the need

for creating and sustaining numerous decent jobs. As stated by the International Labour

Organization (2015), unemployment will continue to rise in the coming years. In this year,

more than 212 million people will be jobless, up from the current 201 million. A global youth

unemployment rate of almost 13% was recorded in 2014, with young workers aged 15-24

particularly hit. Ryder (2015) stated that growing inequality for the enterprise investment or

the small companies will make it difficult for the countries to deal with this issue. Income

inequality will continue to broaden, with the richest 10% earning 30% to 40% of total income

while the poorest 10% will earn between 2% to 7% of total income.

Second is education. Providing the youth with a quality education is the most common

of the many challenges faced by our global cities. It is very important for a person to have a

decent education; Bokova (2015) states that every individual must be empowered with access

to quality lifelong learning, as education saves and transforms lives and is the bedrock of

sustainability. However, according to the United Nations, over 265 million are currently out of

7|Global City
school and 22% are of primary school age. Even the children who are attending schools are

lacking basic skills in reading and math. For quality education to be provided, a great focus is

needed in educational scholarships and teacher training workshops.

Third are the youth livelihoods. In connection to the first challenge, the concern in

today’s time is how jobs will be created for the new generation entering the workforce. The

global youth unemployment rate was at 12.6% in 2013. According to Karkara & Cala (2013)

as cited by the British Council (2018), young people feel that their voices in mass protests are

being neglected and their needs are insufficiently addressed. Fortunately in the recent years,

social enterprise is making a difference in approaching youth unemployment around the world.

The fourth one is having healthy citizens. Improving health is a global priority.

According to the British Council (2018), the sheer scale and density of urban populations, the

complexity of risk factors determining health, and the impact of inequalities on health and

socio-economic outcomes make the case for urgent action to improve global wellbeing and

attain universal health coverage. Participation in creative and cultural activities can also help

improve health and social wellbeing. In Indonesia, the Garbage Clinical Insurance provides

low-income communities with access to healthcare and clears waste form the streets as

payment for a medical insurance scheme.

Fifth is the transport. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency

(2017), almost 95% of the world’s transportation energy is derived from petroleum-based fuels

like gasoline and diesel. As a result, transport is responsible for the 14% of global greenhouse

emissions. This will cause huge negative health effects to the people, which can be related to

the previous challenge. Also, as detailed by Smith, Clayton, & Hanson (2017), traffic accidents

will be the fifth leading cause of death by 2030. Social economy can offer a huge aid to

communities in combating the reliance of people on their owned local transport. In Israel, there

is actually a non-profit model running light rail and bus services.

The sixth one is the inclusive communities. Gender equality and migration present

challenges for global cities. In a study of the United Nations, women in cities often suffer

unreasonably because they are on average poorer than men and they experience greater

difficulty in accessing resources and services tailored to their needs. Migrants, on the other

8|Global City
hand, tend to be particularly concentrated in global cities. According to the World Economic

Forum (2017), there are 244 million international migrants and 763 million internal migrants

worldwide.

Seventh is a sustainable environment. According to the Social Enterprise UK (2017),

cities across the world are struggling with inadequate urban infrastructure, traffic congestion,

environmental degradation, and the insufficient provision of basic services, such as clean

water, sanitation and waste management. In a research by Doust et al. (2018), it was recently

estimated that cities are responsible for 70% of the world’s CO2 emissions. The reliance of

people on fossil fuels needs to be replaced with more sustainable energy sources to mitigate

the effects of climate change.

The last one is affordable housing. According to Rizvi (2016), by 2030, nearly two-

thirds of the world’s population will be urban, but nearly half of it will be living in poverty, in

substandard housing, or in slums. The challenge of providing affordable housing for low-

income city-dwellers is universal. Housing is an essential part of a person’s healrh and

wellbeing.

Though a global city presents many challenges, solutions are slowly made through the

creative and social economies it offers.

The Global City and the Poor

There is a disadvantageous effect of globalization wherein there are more poor people

are driven out of the city centers to make way for the new developments. It is consistent to

determine the massive inequality introduced by the economic globalization. This happen often

in most cities around the world, bigger cities in particularly that are involved in issues rotating

about the unequal distribution and facilitation of the resources and services as state led social

redistribution programs. The division between the rich and the poor are evident through

physical or spatial means wherein those that are rich are systematically favored than those poor

that are displaced for they cannot afford the rising cost of living and they cannot meet the high

expectancy of services in the cities. This phenomenon wherein the poor are driven out and the

new are favored gives the term gentrification. This condition is present in most cities around

9|Global City
the globe today. On the wider scope, the middle class are involved by the effects of the

globalization. In most global cities, the demand for job and services increased resulting for the

middle class to be in line. This can be concluded that the population of this social class is

thinning out. By this, everyone that are not in well stable condition are affected and inequality

is a social problem that they involve.

Conclusion

Global cities, as noted in this lesson, are sites and mediums of globalization. They are,

therefore, material representation of the phenomenon. Through them, we see the best of

globalization; they are places that create exciting fusions of cultures and ideas. They are also

places that generate tremendous wealth. However, they remain sites of inequality, where global

servants serve global entrepreneurs.

Global cities have control function for world economy and they are articulation points

of the national economy and the world economy. The basic part of population in the global

city is international elite who specialize in high-quality service. So, population increases

demand for luxury office and housing in the global city. Increase of services for this cluster of

international elite and global economy is observed in the global cities. Both in residence area

and social fields of the global city, there is social class based divisions related to income level

and occupations. Therefore, they are at the most important point of international

communication network and they have high frequency of airline connections with other world

cities. There is increase in the top income group and this leads unemployment group and urban

poverty at the same time in the global city.

Guide Questions

1. In what sense are cities mediums of globalization?

2. Why is economic power the most crucial determinant of a global city?

3. Why is there a lot of inequality in global cities?

10 | G l o b a l C i t y
 GROUP ANALYSIS

Globalization is a wide term for using of advancement. Throughout the years,

individuals appeared to have an adjustment in pace of life and some way or another keeping

up does impact any other way on individuals. Globalization appeared well and good among

the elements of men did it for the advanced methodology of the age we are in. The objective

is to improve, create and continue however this just covers a few pieces of the world that could

pursue. Generally everything started from nations that had gigantic effect on the financial

division that empowers them to channel worldwide and known as downtown areas. Along

these lines, making them as global city all the while. Being a worldwide city, it challenges the

methods for monetary power for the reason of giving a more extensive impact the world over.

In Philippines, it was known to have a worldwide city which is Manila to have enveloped being

quickest developing modernized city to ever contend far and wide. Tokyo, London, New York,

Paris, Manila. Maybe a couple would consider Manila on a rundown of the 21st century's debut

urban areas. Nor would most think about the Philippine capital as a basic hub in the worldwide

economy. However Manila is unquestionably at the focal point of probably the most essential

urban patterns of the past 50 years: It is the world's most thickly populated city and keeps on

developing at an exponential pace. It fills in as the home office to one of the quickest

developing economies on the planet (tenth in 2017, as indicated by the World Bank). Filipinos,

particularly inhabitants of Manila, travel everywhere throughout the world as medical

caretakers, babysitters, development specialists, and mariners. They give the mass work

energizing the worldwide administration economy.

The world city network is an interlocking network. Service firms have to provide

service where clients (multinational corporations) want to be serviced. Service firms must

develop their own global strategies to sustain their clients and to protect their own brand name.

The information technology environment has to be enabling in order to organize services

easily. Modern city is the primary manifestation of globalization today, and its very essence is

a global network of multidimensional spaces of congestion that both describes and shapes it.

Companies have to choose the right cities, because city advantage is more decisive for business

success than national advantage. As companies move abroad, they decide which nation or

11 | G l o b a l C i t y
nations to produce and sell in and choose specific locations where they intend to carry out their

administration, production, distribution, and sales work.

Urban areas or states are known as the capitals or focuses of economy of each nation

around the world. Globalization is the importance of changing and modernization of everything

around us today.. To look at the get together between business-information frameworks and

those related with modernized wide interchanges in light of the proposal that the propelled

frameworks talk significantly instrument of globalization. In methods for our living we are

growing the skylines and possibilities among strolls of today.

Each city that gotten itself on the map by way of uplifting itself in the supply chain is

informative and useful around them. Ezra (2016) said that the key is not that we prospect these

cities as zero-sum because the main reason is that networking is a positive-sum game. Cities

look up to other cities in their region. The truth that Dubai is the first Middle Eastern city to be

regard as “global city” is very stimulating to the people of Cairo, the people of Riyadh, the

people of Beirut, and the people of even Addis Ababa. It’s very significant that we have at

least one global city in our country to look up to get inspired and become as the role model of

every region of the whole world. In the Philippines, the Manila has found itself in the bottom

half of ranking according to the reports of Global City Competitiveness Index (GCCI) and

Global Cities Index (GCI). In 2012, Manila ranks 85th out of 120 cities with a score of 43.2 out

of 100 while New York which tops the list with 71.4 score. But Manila competes well in two

categories. The city ranks 60th in the social and cultural character and ranks 33th in the financial

stability with a score of 50 (Santos, 2012).

Global cities are considered to be the hubs of economy, commerce, and finance. It is a

very essential part to globalization, as it reinforces business and trade within and across its

borders. With global cities, multinational companies can invest in the area and sell goods to

the people, making a booming effect not only on the economy of the city but might also be on

the country as a whole. Globalization integrates different societies and people. If managed

properly, global cities will open opportunities for people all around the globe, as it provides a

comforting and sustainable life.

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 PHOTOS THAT BEST REPRESENT GLOBAL CITIES

A global city is a significant production point of specialized financial and producer

services that make the globalized economy run (Renn, 2012). According to A.T. Kearney, a

global management consulting firm, there are five criteria to be considered in a global city in

their 2012 Global Cities Index: the business activity (services firms, values of goods through

ports and airports), the human capital (quality of universities, number of international schools),

the information exchange (internet presence, major TV news channels), the cultural experience

(number of museums and sporting events), and the political engagement (number of embassies,

international organizations).

Bonifacio Global City, Philippines

Tokyo, Japan

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Paris, France

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GROUP PHOTOS

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khanna-connectography

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