Saskia Sassen: what makes a global city global

A global city, according to Saskia Sassen, is one that concentrates the command functions of the world economy: corporate headquarters, financial markets, specialised services and international organisations. In The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (1991, Princeton University Press), Sassen analyses how those three cities became nodes through which capital, information, culture and political power flow. Her thesis is that, under globalisation, cities cease to be local environments and become deeply interconnected, exerting global influence in economic and social life alike.

The concept of the global city designates cities that perform crucial functions in the international economy, above all in the management and distribution of financial capital. New York, London and Tokyo stand out because they concentrate the headquarters of major corporations, financial institutions and international bodies, which makes them centres of global decision-making. They do not only control flows of money: they also control information and the advanced services — lawyers, consultants, accountants, advertisers — that firms need to operate worldwide, and that combination gives them a privileged position in the economic system.

Internal economic reconfiguration

Globalisation also transformed the internal workings of those cities. The greater mobility of capital and technology made financial sectors and specialised services grow, while much of manufacturing moved to countries with lower labour costs. That reconfiguration concentrated wealth in certain urban sectors and, at the same time, increased labour precarity and social inequality in others: the global city needs both very well-paid executives and a mass of poorly paid service workers who attend to them. Globalisation enhanced their relevance and sharpened their internal tensions.

Sassen underlines the importance of the networks that connect New York, London and Tokyo with one another and with the rest of the world. Those networks circulate capital, goods, people and information at unprecedented speed and increase the interdependence between global cities and other regions. But the flow is not equitable: while some areas of those cities benefit from their integration into the global economy, others suffer exclusion and marginalisation, because power and resources are concentrated in the hands of an elite that is itself global.

Culture and global political power

Global cities are also cultural and political centres. Cultural trends are born in them and decisions of worldwide reach are taken there; the presence of international media, non-governmental organisations and diplomatic forums reinforces their influence beyond national borders. Their cultural diversity and their capacity to attract talent from around the world give them a particular dynamism, which in turn makes them more attractive as cultural and social epicentres. Economic, cultural and political power feed one another.

The Global City explains how a few cities acquired a pre-eminent role in the world economy and politics, and how, shaped by globalisation, they shape it in turn. Their position as nodes of power and capital gives them enormous advantages; it also exposes them to internal challenges — inequality, economic fragmentation — that are the other side of living in a truly global city. Thirty years on, the list of global cities is longer and the mechanism Sassen described is still the same.