extent, the second tier of global cities—Jakarta, Milan, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro—
businessmen and women armed with high-tech communication devices hold meet-
ings in board rooms, read the Financial Timesin English, and relax with American
mass culture.
In 1991, Saskia Sassen introduced the term “global city.” She noted that New
York, London, and Tokyo are actually located in three different countries on three
different continents, with two languages in common use, so one might expect signif-
icant cultural differences. However, they have so many multinational ties that their
exact location is meaningless. There are 2,500 foreign banks and financial compa-
nies in New York, employing one-quarter of all of the city’s financial employees.
National boundaries make little sense when the horizon of expectation for a city
resident is the entire world.The Natural Environment
Sociologists understand that the natural environment—the physical world, or more pre-
cisely, animals, plants, and the material substances that make up the physical world—
is also organized into ecosystems,which are interdependent systems of organisms and
their environment. Even if you have lived in Los Angeles your whole life and have never
seen an open space other than a vacant lot, you are still participating in biological and
geological ecosystems. You still breathe the air of the natural world. You drink its
water, eat its food, and depend on its natural resources as raw materials for your640 CHAPTER 19SOCIOLOGY OF ENVIRONMENTS: THE NATURAL, PHYSICAL, AND HUMAN WORLDSUnder 20%Over 80%Percentage of Total
Urban Population60–80%
40–60%
20–40%FIGURE 19.4 Urban Population of the World
Source:From Maps of the World website, http://www.mapsoftheworld.com. Reprinted with permission.