World city hypothesis

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The 1986 first published world city hypothesis (orig. World City Hypothesis ) by John Friedmann is considered founding of modern cosmopolitan city -Research that comes from a division of the world cities in different importance classes.

This hypothesis , which is divided into seven theses , was created and published in 1986 by the geographer and spatial planner John Friedmann together with Goetz Wolff . The hypothesis also included a list of the 30 world cities of this time from the authors' point of view. In the following years, this list was regularly updated according to new developments and findings from other geographers and economists and published in book chapters and lectures.

Definition of a cosmopolitan city according to the cosmopolitan city hypothesis

The world city hypothesis defines world cities by their importance as networked economic centers . They exert influence on the surrounding region , whose economy connects them with the global accumulation area. John Friedmann considers the attempt to establish a definitive hierarchy of world cities to be a fruitless effort . Rather, one should recognize existing differences in rank between cities without defining them in more detail. He therefore considers it more sensible to divide the world's cities into certain categories - worldwide financial articulations , multinational articulations, important national articulations and sub-national / regional articulations.

He describes hierarchical relationships primarily as power relationships between rival cities, whose politics are inextricably linked with fear of competition . The more a certain continent or a (world) city becomes dependent on the global level, the less it is possible for local governments to influence the fundamental mechanisms that determine the everyday life of the population. The internationalized economy is unhinging the traditional structures of social and political control over development processes, work and distribution (citing Manuel Castells , 1989)

John Friedmann therefore defines the theoretical subject of cosmopolitan research as follows:

  1. World cities create the articulation between regional, national and international economies and the world economy. They serve as organizational nodes of the world economic system.
  2. There is a global space for capital accumulation , but it does not encompass the whole world. Whole regions of the world and their populations are currently practically excluded from this area and live in a permanent subsistence economy.
  3. Global cities are large, urbanized areas of intensive economic and social relationships.
  4. World cities can be brought into a hierarchical order that roughly corresponds to the economic power that is controlled by these cities. World cities are cities that articulate the regional, national and international economies with the global capitalist accumulation system. Rank in the hierarchy of world cities ultimately results from a city's ability to attract global investment. Their chances of success in this regard are as changeable as their ability to absorb external blows stemming from technological innovations and political changes. Cities can rise to the category of world cities, improve their rank there, but also lose places and relegate from this elite class.
  5. The social class that controls the world's cities is called the transnational capitalist class. It is interested in the smooth functioning of the global accumulation system, its culture is cosmopolitan, and its ideology is consumer-oriented. Their presence often triggers serious conflicts with subaltern classes who pursue more locally defined territorial interests and whose advancement into the transnational class is blocked.

World cities according to the hypothesis

The following list of the 30 world cities was first defined in 1986 and updated in 1991. It contains additional information on the population size category, whether a city also corresponds to other articulations, and whether it represents an important immigration destination:

1.) Worldwide financial articulations:

  • London (important immigration destination, capital, 10-20 million inhabitants, also national articulation)
  • New York (major immigration destination, 10-20 million residents)
  • Tokyo (important immigration destination, capital, 10-20 million inhabitants, also multinational articulation: Southeast Asia)

2.) Multinational articulations:

  • Miami (multinational articulation in the Caribbean, Latin America; important immigration destination, 1–5 million inhabitants)
  • Los Angeles (Pacific region; important immigration destination, 10-20 million inhabitants)
  • Frankfurt (Western Europe; important immigration destination, 1–5 million inhabitants)
  • Amsterdam (important immigration destination; 1–5 million inhabitants or Randstad 5–10 million inhabitants)
  • Singapore (Southeast Asia; capital, 1–5 million inhabitants)

3.) Important national articulations (1989 GNP 200 billion US dollars):

  • Paris (important immigration destination; capital, 5–10 million inhabitants)
  • Zurich (important immigration destination; 1–5 million inhabitants)
  • Madrid (capital, 1–5 million inhabitants)
  • Mexico City (capital, 10-20 million inhabitants)
  • São Paulo (10-20 million inhabitants)
  • Seoul (capital, 10-20 million inhabitants)
  • Sydney (major immigration destination; 5–10 million inhabitants)

4.) Subnational / regional articulations:

  • Osaka - Kobe ( Kansai region; 5–10 million inhabitants)
  • San Francisco (major immigration destination; population 1-5 million)
  • Seattle (major immigration destination; population 1-5 million)
  • Houston (major immigration destination; population 1-5 million)
  • Chicago (major immigration destination; 5–10 million inhabitants)
  • Boston (major immigration destination; population 1-5 million)
  • Vancouver (major immigration destination; population 1-5 million)
  • Toronto (major immigration destination; population 1-5 million)
  • Montreal (1-5 million inhabitants)
  • Hong Kong ( Pearl River Delta; 5–10 million inhabitants)
  • Milan (important immigration destination; 1–5 million inhabitants)
  • Lyon (1–5 million inhabitants)
  • Barcelona (1-5 million inhabitants)
  • Munich (important immigration destination; 1–5 million inhabitants)
  • Düsseldorf - Cologne - Essen - Dortmund ( Rhine-Ruhr region ; important immigration destination, 5–10 million inhabitants)

swell

  1. ^ A b John Friedmann: A Decade of World City Research . In: Hitz, Keil, Lehrer, Ronneberger, Schmid, Wolff: Capitales Fatales . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 1995, pp. 22-27

Web links

  • Research Bulletin of the Globalization and World Cities Group (GaWC) at the British Loughborough University on world cities, referring to John Friedmann's world city hypothesis - published in Mitteilungen der Österreichische Geographische Gesellschaft , 145 (2003), pp. 35-55