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Global city

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A global city (also known as a world city or world-class city) is a city with a somewhat arbitrary set of traits, some of which are listed below. In recent years, the term has become increasingly familiar, due to the rise of globalization (i.e. global finance, worldwide communications and travel). These cities are generally seen as meeting most, or at least some, of the following criteria:

Several powerful and influential media outlets with an international reach are based in world cities, such as the BBC, The New York Times, Le Monde, The Chicago Tribune, and The Times.

In the Western World, New York, London, and Paris have been traditionally considered the "big three" world cities – not incidentally, they also serve as symbols of global capitalism. Tokyo can also be added to the top of the list, due to the influence of Japan in world economic affairs. However, many people have a personal list, and any two lists are likely to differ based on cultural background, values, and experience.

In certain developed countries, especially the United States, the rise of suburbia and the ongoing migration of manufacturing jobs to developing countries has led to significant urban decay. Therefore, to boost urban regeneration, tourism, and revenue, the goal of building a world-class city has recently become an obsession with the governments of some mid-size cities and their constituents.

The phenomenon of world-city building, albeit with slightly more success, has also been observed in Sydney, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, and Toronto: each of these cities has emerged as large and influential.

GaWC Inventory of World Cities

Hong Kong
Los Angeles
File:Chicagoskyline2005.jpg
Chicago
Frankfurt
Singapore

An influential attempt to define and categorise world cities was made by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC) [1], based primarily at Loughborough University in England. The roster was outlined in the GaWC Research Bulletin 5 [2] and ranked cities based on their provision of "advanced producer services" such as accountancy, advertising, banking/finance and law. The Inventory identifies three levels of world city, termed Alpha, Beta and Gamma for their relative influence. Each level contains two or three sub-ranks. There is also a fourth level of cities that show potential to become world cities in the future. This classification is not yet authoritative, but is certainly useful as a starting point for discussion.

The Alpha (most influential) world cities were divided into two sub-ranks:

The Beta (major) World Cities are:

The Gamma (minor) World Cities are:

There is also a category for cities showing strong evidence of becoming world cities, these are:

and cities showing some evidence:

and cities displaying minimal evidence:

There is a schematic map of the GaWC cities at their website, [3], which shows clearly that the great majority of their defined cities lie in the Northern Hemisphere. The GaWC is a somewhat subjective ranking, as is any other, but the top four listed cities at least match those commonly considered the major world cities.

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