INTRODUCTION TO URBAN GEOGRAPHY

Desired Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, the students must have:
 given the definition of urban geography
 identified what influences urban change

Introduction
Urban geography seeks to explain the distribution of towns and cities and the socio-
spatial similarities and contrasts that exist between and within them. Every town and
city has an individual character, urban places also exhibit common features that vary
only in degree of incidence or importance within the particular urban fabric. All cities
contain areas of residential space, transportation lines, economic activities, service
infrastructure, commercial areas, and public buildings.

Common problems to varying degrees, including inadequate housing, poverty, ill

health, social polarization, economic decline, traffic congestion, and environmental
pollution were exhibited by cities.

There are many concerns and characteristics which are shared by urban places. These
shared concerns and characteristics represent the foundations for the study of urban
geography. The character of urban environments throughout the world is the outcome
of interactions among
a host of environmental, economic, technological, social, demographic, cultural, and
political forces operating at a variety of geographic scales ranging from the global to
the local. The study of Urban geography acknowledges the importance of macro-scale
structural factors in urban development.

A global perspective also demonstrates the interdependence of urban places in the

contemporary world and facilitates comparative urban analysis by revealing common
and contrasting features of cities in different cultural regions. This global perspective
resonates with recent transnational and postcolonial approaches to urban study. The
global perspective eschews the analytical value of simplistic distinctions between
cities based on, for example, level of development; rejects the prioritization of
knowledge produced in one world region or city over another; and seeks to
understand cities by drawing on the richness and diversity of urban experience that
characterizes our contemporary urban world.

Influences of Urban Change

THE ECONOMY

The economic forces are regarded as the dominant influence on urban change. Since
its emergence in the 16th century, the capitalist economy has entered three main
phases:

1) ERA OF COMPETITIVE CAPITALISM (from the late 16th to late 19th century)-
characterized by FREE-MARKET competition between locally oriented businesses and
laissez-faire economic (and urban) development largely unconstrained by government
regulation. Consumer markets
expanded to become national and international, labor markets became more
organized as wage-rate norms spread and government intervention in the economy
grew in response to the need for regulation of public affairs.

2) FORDISM (early decades of the 20th century) - was founded on the principles of
mass production using assembly-line techniques and 'scientific management (known
as Taylorism), together with mass consumption fueled by higher wages and high-
pressure marketing techniques. Fordism also involved a generally mutually beneficial
working relationship between capital (business) and labor (trade unions), mediated by
government when necessary to maintain the health of the national economy.

3) ADVANCED CAPITALISM or DISORGANIZED CAPITALISM (the period following

World War II) - was marked by a shift away from industrial production towards services
as the basis of profitability. As mass markets became saturated, and profits from mass
production declined, many enterprises turned to serve specialized 'niche markets'.
Instead of standardized production, specialization requires flexible production
systems. The transition to advanced capitalism was accompanied by an increasing
globalization of the economy in which Transnational corporations (TNCs). Operated
often beyond the control of national governments or labor unions.

TECHNOLOGY

Technological changes influence the pattern of urban growth and change. Innovations,
such as the advent of global communication, have had marked impact on the
structure and functioning of the global economy. This is illustrated by the NEW
INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOR which in production is separated geographically
from R & D (Research and Development) and higher-level management operations.

The effects of macro-level technological change are encapsulated in the concept of

economic long waves or cycles of expansion and contraction in the rate of economic
development.

CYCLES OF INNOVATIONS

1) Kondratieff cycles- was based on early mechanization by means of water

power and steam engines
2) while the most recent (and still incomplete) cycle is based on micro-
electronics, digital telecommunications, robotics, and biotechnology.

Modification of the urban environment occurs most vigorously during up cycles of

economic growth. Technological changes that directly affect urban form also occur at
the local level and how the invention of the high- speed elevator facilitated the
development of skyscrapers in cities such as New York.

DEMOGRAPHY
Demographic changes are among the most direct influences on urbanization and
urban change. Movements of people, into and out of cities, shape the size,
configuration, and social composition of cities.

In Third World countries, expectations of improved living standards draw millions of

migrants into cities, while for many urban dwellers in the West, the good life is
realized through suburbanization or exurbanization. The condition of the urban
environment can also affect the demographic structure of cities by influencing the
balance between rates of fertility and mortality Intra-urban variations in health are
pronounced in Third World cities where well above-average mortality rates are
recorded in overcrowded squatter areas but socio-spatial differences in health status
are also characteristic of many Western cities.

POLITICS

The urban impact of political change is demonstrated by the case of Eastern Europe
and the former Soviet Union. During the middle fifty years of the 20th century, the
development of new towns and re-organization of existing cities reflected the
imperatives of a command economy and centralized political apparatus. The planned
socialist city was intended to promote national economic development and to foster
social and spatial equity in collective consumption. Accordingly, high priority was
afforded to urban industrial development and the construction of large estates of
public housing.

An example of how local-regional changes can have a global impact is the way in
which the end of the Cold War influenced the cities of the US sunbelt/gunbelt, whose
economies had been dependent on defense-related industries. Changes in political
ideology and subsequent modifications of economic and urban policy have had major
impacts on city development. This is evident in the rise of agencies such as Urban
development corporations and enterprise Zones, public-private partnership schemes,
property-led urban regeneration, and strategies such as the private finance initiative
in the UK.

Politics and economics exist in a reciprocal relationship, the Outcomes of which can
have a major impact on urban change. On the other hand, the formulation of urban
policy may be influenced by political forces such as the opposition of middle-class
suburban voters to increased taxation to pay
for inner-city services. On the other hand, a political decision by the central
government not to provide a financial incentive package to attract inward investment
by a foreign-owned NTC can affect the future economic prosperity of a city and its
residents.

SOCIETY

Macro-scale social changes can have a significant impact on the character of towns
and cities. For example, social attitudes towards abortion or the use of artificial
methods of birth control may influence the demographic composition of a society and
its cities. Popular attitudes towards ethnic or lifestyle minorities can determine
migration flows between countries and Cities, as well as underlying patterns of
residential segregation within cities. In a similar manner, the attitude of society
towards other minority groups, such as single-parent households, the unemployed,
disabled people, and elderly people, and towards women, conditions their status and
location in the city.

CULTURE

The rise of materialism was one of the most significant of cultural changes as this is
displayed in conspicuous consumption by those who can afford it. At the urban scale,
this is manifested in the appearance of a 'cappuccino society" characterized by stores
selling designer clothes, wine bars, pavement cafés, gentrification, yuppies (young
upwardly mobile professionals), marbles (married and responsible but loaded
executives), and bumper stickers proclaiming 'Dear Santa, I want it all. It is also
evident in an increasing gap between rich and poor in cities.

The effect of cultural change on cities is encapsulated in the concept of postmodernity

or postmodernism which embraces social difference and celebrates variation in urban
environments, whether expressed in architectural or social terms. Youth cultures have
flourished in some urban
settings (like hip-hop and rap music). Postmodern urbanism is also evident in the
growth of cultural industries and in the regeneration(place marketing) of historical
urban districts.

THE ENVIRONMENT

The impacts of environmental change on patterns of urbanization and urban change

are seen at a number of geographic scales. At the planetary scale, global warming
due to the greenhouse may require the construction of coastal defenses to protect
cities such as Bangkok, Jakarta, Venice and
London from the danger of inundation. At the local scale, "natural phenomena" such
as earthquakes and landslides can force the abandonment of settlements (squatter
settlements constructed on marginal lands) or require major works of construction.

Globalization

Globalization is a term used to describe a complex of related processes that have

served to increase the interconnectedness of social life in the (post-modern world).
The concept refers 'both to the compression of the world and the intensification of
consciousness of the world as a whole.

GLOBALIZATION is evident in three forms:

1. ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION
As seen in arrangements for the production, exchange, distribution, and
consumption of goods and services (such as the rise of TNCS, the new
international division of labor, increases in foreign direct investment, flexible
forms of production, and a global financial system).

2. POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION
As seen in arrangements for the concentration and application of power (such
as the growth of multi-state political-economic groupings, and consideration of
local issues within a global context).
 3. CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION
As seen in arrangements for the production, exchange, and expression of
symbols that represent facts, meanings, beliefs, preferences, tastes, and values
(such as the global distribution of images and information, and the emergent
cosmopolitanism of urban life).

There is a reflexive relationship between the global and the local. While the
global forces lead to changes in the city, cities modify and embed globalization
within a local context. Within the global-local nexus, global forces are generally
held to be the most powerful and their control is more spatially extensive. Local
forces are seen to be relatively weaker and weaker and geographically limited in
effect.

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GLOBALIZATION

1. Globalization is not a new phenomenon. The processes of globalization have

been ongoing throughout human history.

2. Globalization involves both an intensification of worldwide social relations

through time-space compression of the globe and local transformations
involving the enhancement of local identity as well as of local consciousness of
the world as a whole.

3. Global forces are generally held to be the most powerful and their control is
more spatially extensive. Local forces are seen to be relatively weaker and
geographically limited in effect, although certain local actions can have global
consequences.

4. Globalization takes place in cities, but the relationship between the city and
global processes is dialectic. While global forces lead to changes in the city,
cities modify and embed globalization within the local context.

5. Global forces are mediated by locally and historically contingent forces as they
penetrate
downwards, coming to ground in particular places.

6. A number of "trigger forces" underlie globalization but the dominant force is

generally regarded as economic.

7. Globalization reduces the influence of nation-states and political boundaries at

the same time that states are organizing the legal and financial infrastructures
that enable capitalism to operate globally.

8. Globalization operates unevenly, bypassing certain institutions, people and

places. This is
evident at the global scale in the disparities between booming and declining
regions and at
the urban scale by social polarization within cities.
 9. The differing interests of actors mean that global forces are sometimes
embraced, resisted or exploited at lower levels.

10. The mobility of capital diminishes the significance of particular places,

although it may also strengthen local identity by engendering a defensive
response by local actors.

11. The location of agents that command, control and finance the global
economy defines a global city. The extent to which cities achieve global status is
a major determinant of their prosperity.

GLOCALIZATION: THE LOCALIZATION OF THE GLOBAL

There is a dialectical or reflexive relationship between global and local processes in

constructing contemporary urban environments. Glocalization has been used to
describe the simultaneous operation of processes of:

1. De-localisation or de-territorialization is evident, for example, the

instantaneity of e-mail communication across the globe.
2. Re-localization or re-territorialization, whereby global influences interact
with and are transformed within local context as, for example, in the creation of
historic heritage districts in cities.

In labor market terms, globalization is of relevance only for a small minority of workers
with the skills necessary to compete in international labor markets. In social terms,
globalization has positive and negative consequences for different people and places.
On one hand, it may promote the growth of vibrant multicultural urban communities;
on the other, it can lead to socio-spatial concentrations of disadvantage. Politically,
glocalization focuses attention on cities as both strategic sites for global interests
seeking to maximize profit and spaces where local grassroots and civil society assert
their right to livable places.

Local and Historical Contingency

The processes of urban change are also influenced by a host of locally and historically
contingent factors that interact with and mediate more general forces of change.
There are as many examples of such forces as there are cities in the world. They
range from the physical impact of a constricted Site on urban development, as in the
high-rise architecture of Hong Kong Island, to socio-demographic influences such as
the concentration of retirees in seaside towns of southern England, or the particular
cultural economy of Las Vegas.

Global forces come to ground in Cities. Cities are the locations where much of the
work of globalization gets done. Local contexts, such as the urban economic base,
social structure, political organization, tax regulations, institutions, and competing
interest groups, exerts a powerful influence on urban change. The central importance
of cities within the global economy and society is affirmed also in the hollowing out of
the state thesis.
This contends that globalization has led to the supranational and local scales
becoming more important loci of economic and political power than the nation-state,
which, in contrast to its central role during the Fordist era, has assumed the role of
enabler rather than that of regulator of economic activity.

The economic advantages that may accrue to cities that can provide attractive
production environments (for example, an educated and skilled labor force, good
climate, and high-quality life space) stimulate innovation and encourage local
communities to emphasize the particular advantages of their city as a place to live
and work.

Processes of Urban Change

Urbanization occurs when cities grow at the cost of their surrounding countryside:

 suburbanization and ex-urbanization when the inner ring or commuter belt

grows at the expense of the urban core,

 counterurbanization when the population loss of the urban core exceeds the
population gain of the ring, resulting in the agglomeration losing population
overall, and

 reurbanization when either the rate of population loss of the core tapers off or
the core starts to regain population while the ring still loses population.

These processes of urban change are visible to varying degrees in metropolitan areas
of both the developed world and the Third World. The phenomena of peripheral
urbanization and ex-urbanization are characteristics of cities in the Third World. The
concept of peripheral urbanization reflects the expansion of capitalism into Third
World regions and employs a political economy perspective to describe the impact of
global capitalism on national urban systems in the Third World. Exo-urbanization is
promoted by foreign direct investment In Third World countries leading to a pattern of
urban growth based on labor-intensive and assembly manufacturing types of export-
oriented industrialization.
 CONCEPTS AND THEORY IN URBAN
GEOGRAPHY

Introduction

The scope of urban geography and its links with other branches of geography defines
the concept of urban and explains the value of an urban geographical perspective for
an understanding of contemporary towns and cities. The academic context for the
study of urban geography is established by providing a brief history of the subject. We
relate work in urban geography to the major theoretical developments in the
discipline of geography. Finally, we employ the concept of levels of analysis to
illustrate the kind of research undertaken by urban geographers from the global to the
local scale.

The Scope of Urban Geography

Urban geography is defined as the study of cities as systems within a system of

cities. The concern of Urban geographers to identify and explain the distribution of
towns and cities and the socio-spatial similarities and contrasts that exist within and
between them are composed of TWO (2) basic approaches to urban geography.

1. The STUDY OF SYSTEMS OF CITIES which refers to the SPATIAL

DISTRIBUTION of towns and cities and the linkages between them.

2. The STUDY OF THE CITY AS A SYSTEM which refers to the internal structure
of urban places.

The scope of urban geography as well as the link of its subdisciplines with other
branches of geography indicates its power to synthesize many different perspectives
so as to advance our understanding of urban phenomena. The integrative power of
urban geography is a key characteristic of the subdiscipline.

The second principal characteristic of geographical analysis of the city is the centrality
of a spatial perspective. The significance of space varies with context. For example,
spatial location is of no real significance in the electronic hyperspace occupied by
flows of finance between cities in the global economy but may be of fundamental
importance for the spread of infectious disease in a Third World squatter settlement.

The Urban as an Entity

The distinction between the urban as a physical entity and the urban as a quality
helps us to understand the complexity of urban life and illuminates different
approaches to the study of cities.

Four Principal Methods are employed to identify urban places:

1. POPULATION SIZE
 Since Urban places are generally larger than rural places, at some point along
the population-size scale, it should be possible to decide when a village
becomes a town. In practice, this urban population threshold varies over time
and space. For example, In Sweden any settlement with more than 200
inhabitants is classed as urban in the national census, whereas in the USA, the
population minimum for urban status is 2,500; in Switzerland it is 10,000, rising
to 30,000 in Japan.

2. ECONOMIC BASE
In some countries, population size is combined with other diagnostic criteria to
define an urban place. For example, in India, a Settlement must have more than
75 percent of the adult male population engaged in non-agricultural work to be
classified as urban.

3. ADMINISTRATIVE CRITERIA
The majority of towns and cities in the world are defined according to legal or
administrative criteria. The definition of urban places by national governments
leads to great diversity, which creates difficulties for comparative research that
can be overcome only by urban analysts constructing their own definitions and
applying them uniformly across the globe. A second problem with administrative
definitions is that these may have little correspondence with the actual physical
extent of the urban area.

4. FUNCTIONAL DEFINITIONS
Urban researchers devised 'functional urban regions that reflect the real extent
of urban influence to address problems such as underbounding (and it converse
overbounding). For example, in 2000, a review of standards for defining US
metropolitan statistical areas retained the two main principles established in
1960:

1. Settlement Form (based on the population size of a central core city)

2. Functional integration between central and outlying countries

(reflected in journeys to work)

Other criteria for inclusion within a metropolitan area are the two main types of core-
based statistical areas (CBSAs):
 Metropolitan statistical areas
 Micropolitan statistical areas

The Urban as a Quality

Urban geographers and others have sought to identify urban meaning through TWO
(2) main approaches:

1. COGNITIVE MAPPING
Geographers, planners, and environmental psychologists have employed mental
maps or cognitive mapping techniques to explore the subjective world of urban
places, with a view to obtaining a better understanding of human behavior in
 the urban environment and improving the quality of urban life, whereas,
traditional means of cognitive mapping provide subjective spatial
representations of urban environments.

2. URBANISM AS A WAY OF LIFE

The concept of a rural-urban continuum argued that as the size, density and
heterogeneity of places increased, so did the level of economic and social
disorganization. According to Wirth (1938), urbanization as a process leads to
the erosion of the moral order of society due to the concomitant decline of the
community.

The Significance of Sense and Place

PLACE is part of but different from space. Place is a unique and special location in
space notable for the fact that the regular activities of human beings occur there. The
place may furnish the basis of our sense of identity as human beings, as well as our
sense of community with others. In short, places are special sites in space where
people live and work and where, therefore, they are likely to form intimate and
enduring connections. The place is a central concept in the analysis of how urban
areas are constructed and come to have meaning for their residents.

The concept of TERRITORIALITY contributes to the formation of discrete sub-areas

within cities, often segregated on ethnic or class lines. The partitioning of space by
local government boundaries has implications for the social composition and fiscal
health of different areas and the quality of life of residents. A recent challenge to the
significance of geographical space has accompanied the advent of CYBERSPACES
(such as the internet) which some authors undermined the relevance of 'real space'.
CYBERSPACE negates the effects of physical separation and produces new
'SPACELESS', PLACELESS social spaces in which people can interact.

A Brief History of Urban Geography

Urban geography is an established branch of geography that attracts researchers and

students in significant numbers and produces a large and expanding volume of
published work to aid our understanding of the city. The advance of urban geography
to a central position within the discipline has occurred over the past half-century.

Urban geography is a dynamic subdiscipline that comprises a combination of past

ideas and approaches, current concepts and issues that are still being worked out. The
increased diversity is a source of potential weakness that may lead ultimately to its
disintegration. For others, including the present writer, the breadth of perspective
strengthens urban geography's position as an integrative focus for research on the
city.

ENVIRONMENTALISM

The major concerns of urban geography during the first half of the 20 th century
reflected the more general geographical interest in the relationship between people
and environment, and in regional description. Early work on urban sites and
situations, and the origins and growth of towns was largely descriptive.
POSITIVISM

This is characterized by adherence to the 'scientific method of investigation based on

hypothesis testing, statistical inference, and theory construction. Positivism
blossomed in urban geography in the late 1950s with the development of the spatial
analysis school.

BEHAVIOURALISM

This approach sought to overcome the shortcomings of spatial analysis by highlighting

the role of cognitive processes and decision-making in mediating the relationship
between the urban environment and people's spatial behavior.

HUMANISM

This approach views the individual as a purposeful agent of change in the city rather
than a passive respondent to external stimuli. Although it is acknowledged that people
do not act free of constraints, the humanist philosophy accords central importance to
human awareness, agency, consciousness, and creativity The aim of a humanistic
approach is to understand human social behavior using methodologies that explore
people's subjective experience of the world.

STRUCTURALISM

Structuralism is a generic term for a set of principles and procedures designed to

expose the underlying causes of revealed patterns of human behavior. Structural
analysis in urban geography has been based primarily on the work of Karl Marx.
According to the Marxian or political economy
approach. Every society is built upon a mode of production - a set of institutional
practices by which the society organizes its productive activities provides for its
material needs, and reproduces the socio-economic structure. Cities are viewed as an
integral part of the capitalist mode of production by providing an environment
favorable to the fundamental capitalist goal of accumulation. This is the process by
which the value of capital is increased through the continual reinvestment of profit
from earlier investments.

MANAGERIALISM

Focuses on intermediate-level decision-makers within a social formation. However, at

the interface between consumers and allocators of scarce resources, managerialism
introduces a humanistic perspective that can help to expose the operation and
rationalities of the distributive
process in cities.

POST-MODERNISM

This theory is characterized by the rejection of grand theory and an emphasis on

human differences. The most visible impact of postmodern thinking on the city is in its
architecture, where the 'concrete functionalism' of the modern era is replaced by a
diversity of styles. In terms of the social geography of the city, the most important
contribution of a postmodern perspective is how its focus on difference, uniqueness,
and individuality sensitizes us to the needs and situations of all members of a society.

Postmodernism has helped focus particular attention on social cleavages based on

gender and sexuality as presented in feminist geography and queer theory. Men and
women not only use cityscapes in different ways but experience and perceive them
differently. City environments both create and reflect gender roles in society.

Example/s:

 How female merchant bankers felt obliged to conform to working practices of an

aggressive male-dominated environment where gender roles in the city reflect
not only sexual differences but the system of power relations.

 Under the system of patriarchy, the dominant social arrangements and

institutional structures promote the domination of men over women and
masculinity over feminity.

 The existence of Gay and Lesbian spaces.

Transnational Urbanism

Refers to the contemporary form of urbanism resulting from the forces of

globalization. Particular attention is focused on the transnational flow of migration and
cultural practices that link residents in 'sending’ and 'receiving' localities in the
form of ‘transnational social formation'. The perspective of transnational urbanism
helps illuminate the commonality within the diversity of our urban world.

According to Smith (2001), social networks of transnational migrants comprise

one of the key circuits of communicative action connecting localities beyond borders
and constituting translocal ties across the globe.

Examples:
 economic links between small rural villages in Mexico and large US cities (flow
of remittances and communication between places)

 political activities of transnational networks of urban pressure groups

 network concerned with mutual learning through shared experience that has
federations in several countries

Postcolonialism

The postcolonial stance of critical engagement with the after effects of colonialism
attempts to expose the ethnocentrism of the dominant culture. Postcolonial theory
contributes to the understanding of cities in both colonizing' and 'colonized' states.

Example:
The imprint of colonialism in cities of former colonial powers, as in the cultural and
ethnic hybridity introduced by Algerian migrants in Paris, Puerto Ricans in New York
City, and Jamaicans in London. Equally, a postcolonial perspective can highlight the
construction and reconstruction of cities in former colonies in practices ranging from
the promotion of heritage conservation in Singapore to the creation of a new capital
city (Lilongwe) in Malawi as a conscious break from the colonial past.

Major Philosophy

An approach based on moral philosophy or ethics seeks to examine critically the

moral bases of society. Central to the ethical perspective is the concept of normative
judgment that focuses on
what should be rather than what is the extent to which there is equity in the
distribution of welfare services, employment opportunities, and decent housing for
different social groups in the
city; how to interpret the causes of inner-city poverty and the social acceptability of
existing urban conditions.

Example:

What is an acceptable level of air pollution or infant mortality?

Levels of Analysis in Urban Geography

The character of urban environments is the outcome of the interplay of a host of

private and public interests operating at a variety of geographical scales. In order to
understand the geography of towns and cities, it is necessary to look both with and
beyond the settlement and to examine the complex factors involved in urban change
at all levels of the global-local continuum. The following illustrates some of the issues
of concern to Urban Geography at different spatial
scales and identified FIVE MAIN LEVELS of ANALYSES.

1. THE NEIGHBORHOOD
This is the area immediately around one's home which usually displays some
homogeneity in terms of housing type, ethnicity, or socio-cultural values.
Neighborhoods may offer a locus for the formation of shared interests and
development of community solidarity. Issues of relevance to the urban
geographer include the processes of local economic decline or revitalization,
residential segregation, levels of service provision, and the use of neighborhood
political organizations as part of the popular struggle to control urban space.

2. THE CITY
Cities are centers of economic production and consumption, arenas of social
networks and cultural activities, and the set of government and administration.
The role of a city in the regional, national, and international economy, and how
the city's socio-spatial form is conditioned by its role.
 Example: as a financial center or manufacturing base. A study of the
distribution of power in the city would focus on the behavior and biases of
formal organizations as well as the informal arrangements by which public and
private interests operate to influence government decisions.

3. THE REGION
The spread of urban influences into surrounding rural areas, the spatial
expansion of cities have introduced concepts such as urban region, metropolis,
metroplex, conurbation, and megapolis into urban geography. Issues
appropriate to this level of analysis include the
the ecological footprint of the city, land-use conflict on the urban fringe, growth
management strategies, and forms of metropolitan governance.

4. THE NATIONAL SYSTEM OF CITIES

Cities are affected by nationally defined goals established in pursuit of objective
that extends beyond urban concerns. Cities are encouraged to become more
competitive to attract inward investment. National-level policy guidelines,
incentives in the shape of competitive grants, and financial and other controls
over the actions of local government have a direct influence on urban decision-
making and management.

5. THE WORLD SYSTEM OF CITIES

This reflects the growing interdependence of nations and cities within the global
political economy. In this urban system, world cities' occupy a distinctive niche
owing to their role as political and financial control centers. This status is
evident in the concentration of advanced producer services such as education,
R&D, banking and insurance, legal services, accounting, advertising, and real
estate services.

Urban geographers must remain aware of the relationship between global and
local forces in the production and re-production of urban environments.