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A global city, also called world city or sometimes alpha city or world center, is a city which is a primary node in the global economic network. The concept comes from geography and urban studies, and the idea that globalization is created, facilitated, and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade.

The most complex node is the "global city", with links binding it to other cities having a direct and tangible effect on global socio-economic affairs.^[1] The term "global city", rather than "megacity", was popularized by sociologist Saskia Sassen in her 1991 work, The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo.^[2] "World city", meaning a city heavily involved in global trade, appeared in the May 1886 description of Liverpool, by The Illustrated London News.^[3]Patrick Geddes later used the term "world city" in 1915.^[4] More recently, the term has focused on a city's financial power and high technology infrastructure, with other factors becoming less relevant.^[5][6]

Criteria

Global city status is considered beneficial and desirable. Competing groups have developed multiple alternative methods to classify and rank world cities and to distinguish them from non-world cities.^[4] Although there is a consensus upon leading world cities,^[7] the chosen criteria affect which other cities are included.^[4] Selection criteria may be based on a yardstick value (e.g., if the producer-service sector is the largest sector then city X is a world city)^[4] or on an imminent determination (if the producer-service sector of city X is greater than the combined producer-service sectors of N other cities then city X is a world city.)^[4]

Cities can fall from ranking, as in the case of cities that have become less cosmopolitan and less internationally renowned in the current era.

Characteristics

Although criteria are variable and fluid, typical characteristics of world cities are:^[8]

• A variety of international financial services,^[9] notably in finance, insurance, real estate, banking, accountancy, and marketing
  


• Headquarters of several multinational corporations
  


• The existence of financial headquarters, a stock exchange, and major financial institutions


• Domination of the trade and economy of a large surrounding area


• Major manufacturing centres with port and container facilities


• Considerable decision-making power on a daily basis and at a global level


• Centres of new ideas and innovation in business, economics, culture, and politics


• Centres of media and communications for global networks
  


• Dominance of the national region with great international significance


• High percentage of residents employed in the services sector and information sector
  


• High-quality educational institutions, including renowned universities, international student attendance,^[10] and research facilities


• Multi-functional infrastructure offering some of the best legal, medical, and entertainment facilities in the country


• High diversity in language, culture, religion, and ideologies.

Rankings

Global Economic Power Index

In 2015, the second Global Economic Power Index, a
meta list compiled by Richard Florida, was published by The Atlantic (distinct from a namesake list^[11] published by the Martin Prosperity Institute), with city composite rank based on five other lists.^[11][12]

Global Power City Index

The Institute for Urban Strategies at The Mori Memorial Foundation in Tokyo issued a comprehensive study of global cities in 2017. They are ranked based on six categories: economy, research & development, cultural interaction, livability, environment, and accessibility, with 70 individual indicators among them. The top ten world cities are also ranked by subjective categories including manager, researcher, artist, visitor and resident.^[13]

• 
  Global Power City top 10: 1. London, 2. New York City, 3. Tokyo, 4. Paris, 5. Singapore, 6. Seoul, 7. Amsterdam, 8. Berlin, 9. Hong Kong, 10. Sydney.

GaWC study

A map showing the distribution of GaWC-ranked world cities (2010 data)

Jon Beaverstock, Richard G. Smith and Peter J. Taylor established the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC). A roster of world cities in the GaWC Research Bulletin 5 is ranked by their connectivity through four "advanced producer services": accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, and law.^[7] The GaWC inventory identifies three levels of global cities and several sub-ranks,^[14] although the authors caution that "concern for city rankings operates against the spirit of the GaWC project"^[15] (emphasis in original).

The 2004 rankings added several new indicators while continuing to rank city economics more heavily than political or cultural factors. The 2008 roster, similar to the 1998 version, is sorted into categories of Alpha world cities (with four sub-categories), Beta world cities (three sub-categories), Gamma world cities (three sub-categories) and additional cities with High sufficiency or Sufficiency presence. The cities in the top two classification in the 2018 edition are:^[16]

Alpha ++

Alpha +

Global Cities Index

In 2008, the American journal Foreign Policy, in conjunction with the consulting firm A.T. Kearney and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, published a ranking of global cities, based on consultation with Saskia Sassen, Witold Rybczynski, and others.^[17]Foreign Policy noted that "the world’s biggest, most interconnected cities help set global agendas, weather transnational dangers, and serve as the hubs of global integration. They are the engines of growth for their countries and the gateways to the resources of their regions."^[18] The ranking is based on 27 metrics across five dimensions: business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement and was updated in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015 2016 and 2017. Since 2015 it is published together with a separate index called, the Global Cities Outlook: a projection of a city’s potential based on rate of change in 13 indicators across four dimensions: personal well-being, economics, innovation, and governance.^[19]

The Wealth Report

"The Wealth Report" (a global perspective on prime property and wealth) is made by the London-based estate agent Knight Frank LLP together with the Citi Private Bank. The report includes a "Global Cities Survey", evaluating which cities are considered the most important to the world’s HNWIs (high-net-worth individuals, having over $25 million of investable assets). For the Global Cities Survey, Citi Private Bank’s wealth advisors, and Knight Frank’s luxury property specialists were asked to name the cities that they felt were the most important to HNWIs, in regard to: "economic activity", "political power", "knowledge and influence" and "quality of life".^[20][21]

Global City Competitiveness Index

In 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit (The Economist Group), ranked the competitiveness of global cities according to their demonstrated ability to attract capital, businesses, talent and visitors.^[22]

See also

• Ecumenopolis


• Financial centre


• List of cities by GDP


• Megalopolis (city type)


• Metropolis


• Primate city


• Ranally city rating system

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Global City.

• Repository of Links Relating to Urban Places


• 
  The World-System’s City System: A Research Agenda by Jeffrey Kentor and Michael Timberlake of the University of Utah and David Smith of University of California, Irvine


• UN-HABITAT.:. The State of the World’s Cities