Global City-Regions in the Twenty-first Century

Abstract

Abstract There are two questions, separate but interrelated. First, what do we mean by a “global city”? This is an old question, much discussed, but not satisfactorily answered. We need to resolve it before we can proceed to the second and novel question, which is the subject of this symposium: what do we mean by a “global city-region”? A major review of the global-cities literature has come recently from the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network at the University of Loughborough, led by Peter Taylor and John Beaverstock. We can echo their conclusion that “Positioning world cities in a global urban hierarchy has be come a preoccupation for the many scholars of international urban studies” (Beaverstock, Smith, and Taylor 1999: 2).