Spaces And Forms Of Power

SPACES AND EXCHANGES: Global Cities

I’m going to talk about global cities in order to illustrate the notion: spaces and exchanges.

A global city is a city having a strategic position in diverse domains, mainly economic, political and cultural at the world level and establishing a concentration of communications, because of globalization.

Global cities as London, the second world city after New York, and Tokyo, the third, are the leaders in the world as well as on the international marke in 2010.

To sum up, according to the definition of the Saskia Sassen, a global city is “one that tangibly influences global affairs in terms of politics, culture, and various socio-economic means.”

This year we studied spaces and exchanges, that is why it is interesting to ask us how global cities, as geographical spaces, can have an impact on the people and exchanges.

First of all, I will look at the impact of global cities on people everyday lives, before to mention the diversity and exchanges, and then, the future of global cities.

1) The global cities have real impacts positive as well as negative on the population in everyday lives.

• At first, the positive aspects of a global city are numerous. The inhabitants have access to numerous services. Indeed, the strong economic developments that know the global cities, which are leaders in the economic world, allow these cities to invest in diverse infrastructures. Equally, the access to culture is another major positive aspect of the global cities, the activities for entertainment are numerous and it makes the city more attractive. Global Cities propose also a quality education on account of their world-class universities.

• However, the global cities know important negative impact for their population. For that matter, the cities are increasingly dirty with no greenery. Today, Global cities are too densely populated, they caused numerous congestions in transports and life in metropolis is also expensive. But the most problematic drawback is the pollution owed essentially to an overcrowded population.

• For instance, during the Great Smog due to the factories pollution in 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected London during December. The inhabitants of London knew health problems because of the unbreathable sight. It is considered the worst air pollution event in the history of the United Kingdom.

2) The global cities have an impact on exchanges, and also on diversity.

• First of all, the urban space encourages various forms of exchanges whether it is exchanges, cultural, ethnics or still linguistic. The cultural diversity due to the multi-ethnic dimension of the global cities allows a real opening on the world. Indeed, thanks to a high level of human development, the global cities are a magnet for the foreigners who can, for example, be attracted by jobs opportunities.

• Indeed in London, according to the Historical population of Greater London, in 1901 there were more people living inner London than in the outer boroughs, whereas today the situation has been reversed. Perhaps the evolution of transport and the improvement of living have led people to move away from the city center in search of healthier and more

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