World Cities

World Cities

1. Urbanisation: refers to the increasing proportion of a country's population living in towns and cities.

   • Urbanisation rates are highest in the countries of the developing world.

2. Pull factors for urban areas: employment opportunities, promise of higher standards of living, entertainment, medical facilities and educational opportunities.

3. Push factors for rural areas: landlessness, lack of medical facilities, rural poverty and rapid population growth.

4. The emergence of world cities: The impacts of globalisation are not evenly distributed. The gap between the mega-cities of the developing world and the world cities of the developed world is widening. Urban societies are becoming polarised in terms of poverty and wealth.

5. The nature, character, and distribution of world cities: the emergence of world cities is a result of the globalisation of economic activity. The four major world cities are: New York, London, Tokyo and Paris. Very few world cities are located in the developing world, the key is global economic function rather than population size.

6. Globalisation has been driven by: technological developments in transport and communication, the deregulation of financial markets, the emergence of the 'new economy' and the emergence of transnational corporations (TNCs)

7. The emergence of world cities is an integral part of the internationalism of economic activity. They are centres of international finance, transnational business and international business services.

8. The role of world cities: they are command and control centres for organising the global economy, the preferred location for finance and specialised service firms, a focus for advanced telecommunications technologies as well as infrastructure development, a focus for media outlets, markets for the products and innovations produced, powerful centres of cultural authority and they are a home for major sporting events.

9. World cities as centres of cultural authority: this comes from their ability to generate and spread ideas and values, and influence specific cultural processes.

10. The operation of global networks: the flow of capital, information, goods, services and people are among the more readily measured indicators of the relationship between large cities.

11. The changing role of regional centres and the demise of the small town: telecommunications technologies are leading to the centralisation of business services into a relatively small number of world cities. This process has a cascade effect through the urban system.

12. The demise of the small town: as regional centres have grown, many once vibrant local communities and country towns with populations fewer than 11000 have declined. For example: In the past 35 years Dubbo's population has grown from 20000 to 40000. However all the surrounding towns have either stagnated or declined.