Espaces et échanges (document en anglais): quel est l'impact de la mondialisation sur les villes et la vie des gens?

The notion under study is entitled «Spaces and exchanges » . Let me begin by defining this notion. It deals with the geographical and symbolic areas that all societie occupy and the interactions between men and different societies. Our world is built on the exploration and conquest of new spaces. The different cultural, economic, sociological and language interactions have shaped and characterised our modern-day world.

We may wonder what is the impact of globalisation on cities and people's life?

On the one hand we will talk about the positive transformation brought by globalisation and on the second hand the side coin of globalisation and it developing solutions.

First and foremost, we have to explain the origins of this globalisation. From time immemorial, people have always traveled around the world to have better living conditions,to discover the world, to run away from war and poverty . The world has become a global village thanks to new means of transport and communication. Nowadays, borders tend to vanish. Consequently, We can point out that the world has evolved due to globalisation and one example of this change are the global cities. Defined according to 5 different criteria ( business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience and political engagement ) a global city is a city generally considered to be an important node in the global economic system. Global cities have many assets: competitiveness, productivity, openness, multiculturalism. Let us take the example of two cities . Fistly , NeW york. N-Y ranks first among the 20 most important global cities. We all know the yellow cabs, time square, central park, the MOMA ; etc. NY is lively, inspiring, multicultural.

Furthermore, we can talk about London, which is also a global city. As a matter of fact, in London there are museums, theatres, restaurants, footballclubs, a financial center and incredible monuments...

London and NY are now thanks to the process of globalisation sources of ethnological diversity, people from all over the world can become Londoners or New Yorkers and live together. For example, during the school year we study The American Pie. What strikes me is the fact that the american population is evolving : the percentage of hispanics has skyrocketed : there were 11,8 percents of hispanics in 2000, and 16 % in 2010, now they are the majority minority.

Also , in England, 42 % of the londoners are foreign-born .We can infer that a global city has many facilities, it is an important area of tourism and differents exchanges.

To turn to my second part, we can say that even if the process of globalisation seems to be a great progress for the cities ,it unfortunately raise important issue in many sectors.

First of all the process of globalisation brought secondary effect: with the increase of the population amount, the street in the cities are overcrowded. Indeed, in London there are 8,4 million inhabitants, we can called it overpopulation which causes congestion .And this is brought an environmental issue.The main drawbacks of global cities are the overpopulation, the congestion and polution. In front of this big issue London,takes some measure to strive against pollution . As a result, the former mayor of London, Ken Livingston , implemented the Congestion Charge. In addition of that the current mayor, Boris Jonhson

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