Globalization and the Concept of the Second City

Abstract

Globalization is fundamentally reorienting how cities are connected to one another through trade, migration, communication, and representation. Whereas most existing research has concentrated on unambiguously global cities, in this paper I discuss the positions of cities lower down in the urban hierarchy. I argue that “second cities” constitute a type characterized by distinct patterns of global integration. This second city pattern is constituted by the following: globally active firms in nonfinancial industries; a common migration pattern; a tradition of innovation in political ideologies and professional/expert cultures; a common historical trajectory due largely to transportation projects that integrate the city more deeply into global flows; and the growth over time of a second–city identity. The paper is primarily theoretical; the empirical background, from which some examples will be drawn, is Philadelphia (United States) and Manchester (United Kingdom), across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.