Global City Theory and the New Urban Politics Twenty Years On

Abstract

In this paper, a framework is developed for analysing the ‘(new) urban politics’ (NUP) of global cities. The paper is structured around three main sections. First, it briefly reviews the global city literature alongside some of its main criticisms, with a particular emphasis on its ‘political deficit’. Secondly, it suggests that this shortcoming can be addressed through the establishment of a conversation with the NUP literature. These scholarships have developed parallel to each other but their relationship has been rather weak. It is argued that such cross-fertilisation presents an opportunity to refashion and bring forward the NUP in the particular context of global cities, but only if it is developed through a historical geographical materialist approach. Finally, the paper draws the contours of a conceptual framework to address the NUP of global cities, drawing mainly from the case of London. The conclusion sets out elements of a future research agenda.