Since the late 1970s the role of key world cities such as Los Angeles, New York and London as centres of global control and co-ordination has come under increasing scrutiny. This book provides an overview and critique of work on the global context of metropolitan growth, world city formation and the theory it has generated. Suggesting ‘post-imperialism’ as the most appropriate framework for analysis, the author demonstrates the extent to which urban and regional development, both in Britain and elsewhere, were linked to a colonial mode of production, and highlights the effects of its disappearance. Against this background, the author charts the transformation of London from imperial capital in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to world city in the capitalist world economy of today.

How Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and China deal with such urban environmental issues as ports, goods movement, air pollution, water quality, transportation, and public space. Over the past four decades, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and key urban regions of China have emerged as global cities—in financial, political, cultural, environmental, and demographic terms. In this book, Robert Gottlieb and Simon Ng trace the global emergence of these urban areas and compare their responses to a set of six urban environmental issues. These cities have different patterns of development: Los Angeles has been the quintessential horizontal city, the capital of sprawl; Hong Kong is dense and vertical; China's new megacities in the Pearl River Delta, created by an explosion in industrial development and a vast migration from rural to urban areas, combine the vertical and the horizontal. All three have experienced major environmental changes in a relatively short period of time. Gottlieb and Ng document how each has dealt with challenges posed by ports and the movement of goods, air pollution (Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and urban China are all notorious for their hazardous air quality), water supply (all three places are dependent on massive transfers of water) and water quality, the food system (from seed to table), transportation, and public and private space. Finally they discuss the possibility of change brought about by policy initiatives and social movements.

This classic work chronicles how New York, London, and Tokyo became command centers for the global economy and in the process underwent a series of massive and parallel changes. What distinguishes Sassen's theoretical framework is the emphasis on the formation of cross-border dynamics through which these cities and the growing number of other global cities begin to form strategic transnational networks. All the core data in this new edition have been updated, while the preface and epilogue discuss the relevant trends in globalization since the book originally came out in 1991.

Cinema and audiovisual media are integral to the culture, economy and social experience of the contemporary global city. But how has the relationship between cinema and the urban environment evolved in the era of digital technology, new media and globalization? And what are the critical tools and concepts with which we can grasp this vital interconnection between space and screen, viewer and built environment? Engaging with a rapidly transforming urban world, the contributions to this collection rethink the 'cinematic city' at a global scale. By presenting a global constellation of screen cities within one volume, the book encourages juxtapositions and comparisons across the North and South to capture the global city and its dynamics of exchange, hybridity, and circulation. The contributions examine film and screen cultures in a range of locations spanning five continents: Antibes, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Busan, Cairo, Caracas, Copenhagen, Jakarta, Kolkata, Lagos, Los Angeles, Malmö, Manila, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Seoul, Sète, and Shanghai. The chapters address topics that range across the contemporary film and media landscape, from popular cinema, art cinema, and film festivals to serial television, public screens, multimedia installations, and video art. Contributors: Chris Berry, Yomi Braester, Jinhee Choi, Pei-Sze Chow, Thomas Elsaesser, Malini Guha, Jonathan Haynes, Will Higbee, Igor Krstic, Christian B. Long, Joanna Page, Lawrence Webb.

The book argues that looking at global cities can bring about three fundamental advantages on traditional IR paradigms. First, it facilitates an eclectic turn towards more nuanced analyses of world politics. Second, it widens the horizon of the discipline through a multiscalar image of global governance. Third, it underscores how global cities have a strategic diplomatic positioning when it comes to core contemporary challenges such as climate change.

This book contains fifty selections from classic writings by authors such as John Friedmann, Michael Peter Smith, Saskia Sassen, Peter Taylor, Manuel Castells and Anthony King, as well as major contributions by other international scholars of global city formation.

Why have some cities become great global urban centers, and what cities will be future leaders? From Athens and Rome in ancient times to New York and Singapore today, a handful of cities have stood out as centers of global economic, military, or political power. In the twenty-first century, the number of truly global cities is greater than ever before, reflecting the globalization of both economic and political power. In Global Cities: A Short History, Greg Clark, an internationally renowned British urbanist, examines the enduring forces—such as trade, migration, war, and technology—that have enabled some cities to emerge from the pack into global leadership. Much more than a historical review, Clark’s book looks to the future, examining the trends that are transforming cities around the world as well as the new challenges all global cities, increasingly, will face. Which cities will be the global leaders of tomorrow? What are the common issues and opportunities they will face? What kinds of leadership can make these cities competitive and resilient? Clark offers answers to these and similar questions in a book that will be of interest to anyone who lives in or is affected by the world’s great urban areas.