The Sociology Book

164

G L O B A L C I T I E S A R E

S T R A T E G I C S I T E S

F O R N E W T Y P E S

O F O P E R A T I O N S

SASKIA SASSEN (1949– )

G

lobalization does not take

place by itself. According

to Saskia Sassen, professor

of sociology at Columbia University,

New York, certain cities play a key

role in generating the economic and

cultural flows that connect the

world together. These “global

cities” exert power and influence

well beyond the territory in which

they are located.

Sociologists study cities

to understand what impact they

have on the behavior, values,

and opportunities of occupants. In

the 20th century, they noted that

the large industrial cities of the

developed world were forming

new connections and becoming

economically interdependent.

These changes were resulting, in

part, from trade liberalization and

the global expansion of industrial

capitalism. Within this new “global

economy,” central clusters of

economic and cultural activity,

or “global cities,” were forming.

The modern metropolis

Global cities, Sassen advises,

produce goods in the form of

technological innovations, financial

products, and consulting services

(legal, accounting, advertising,

and so on). These service

industries are highly intensive

users of telecommunications

technologies and are therefore

integrated into business networks

that stretch across national borders.

They are also part of the post-

industrial or “service” economies

of the developed world, in that

their main products are knowledge,

innovation, technical expertise,

and cultural goods.

Sassen argues in The Global

City (1991, revised 2001) that the

emergence of a global market for

financial and specialized services

gives global cities a “command and

control function” over economic

Wall Street is the economic engine of

the global city of New York. Such cities,

Sassen says, are the “terrain where a

multiplicity of globalization processes

assume concrete, localized forms.”

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Global cities

KEY DATES

1887 Ferdinand Tönnies says

urbanization affects social

solidarity by giving rise to a

more individualistic society.

1903 Georg Simmel suggests

that cities can cause people to

adopt an “urban reserve” and

blasé attitude.

1920s–40s “Chicago School”

sociologists claim that cities

have an “urban ecology,” in

which people compete for

employment and services.

From the 1980s British

sociologist David Harvey and

Spanish sociologist Manuel

Castells separately argue

that cities are shaped by

capitalism, which influences

not only their character but

also the various interactions

of their inhabitants.