Jonathan Hagberg

Literature and Globalization

Dr. Hogan
3/20/13
Global City Thinking Piece
1) One of the chief distinctions of the global cities of today and the major cities
of the past is the change in service. Chicago was a major international city
because it was a large agricultural processing/manufacturing city. These cities
created physical goods designed for export and would ship their products
overseas. The global city is one whos main export is capital. They are
financial centers that are fed by the service industry. This leads to the second
major difference. Where there would be a few wealthy factory owners and a
relatively middle class section of factory workers, the global city further
increases the income disparity. It creates high paying white collar jobs but
those jobs seem to necessitate dead end minimum wage service positions.
These new global cities function to generate considerably more wealth than
the old cities but in a concentrated few.
2) These Global cites have grown because wealth is being concentrated in these
cities. As the wealth grows in these cities, more firms and more jobs are
created. These jobs provide for a growing number of people. These people
continue to move to these financial concentrations. Adding to this population
boom, is an increase in the service industry. That is the service of those
individuals in the economic centers, these global cities. Fancy hotels, nice
restaurants, and other things meant to please the white collar workers
creates jobs on the other end of the spectrum. Since the developed world
does not manufacture goods but imports them, it is much easier to

concentrate the financial sector into one city rather than like before, have a
number of manufacturing/agricultural hotspots throughout the country.
3) This is an interesting point and I think kind of ran through my two earlier
answers. The wealth disparity in the U.S. at least has been increasing since
the mid-70s. The global cities show this process in action. There are an
increasing number of high paying financial jobs based in these global
economic centers. As the number of wealthy grows in these cities, so does
the number of services that provide for them. Now these service jobs are
often minimum wage. This shifts the power dynamic in terms of money. This
is also puts the power into the high paying jobs not just in that they have
money but that they have an enormous amount of people tending to their
needs in the service position.
4) I believe that Massey refers to a place where someone can feel grounded and
at home when she refers to a sense of place. Not really a home but rather a
sense of where they fit into the world. This is closely tied to identity and helps
to give an individual a sense of purpose. Sense of place used to be taken up
by the spot in ones community. It provided a clear sense of belonging and
purpose fitting into ones community. Now that the world has become
compressed in time and space people clinging to a sense of place are seen as
being traditionalists.
5) Masseys sense of place is one that is fluid and evolving. It is not a defined
place with borders. There is no homogenous group of people with a singular
identity. It is a group of possibly very different people adapting to their
surroundings and in turn adapting that surrounding to them. Her Kilburn
neighborhood is one that has history rooted in the Irish struggle but evolving

to take on a significant Indian population as well. It is not that the Irish are
kicked out or the Indians are taking over , but both these groups are
interacting with each other and affecting the people and the place where she
lives. In that respect it is showing a neighborhood working as a progressive
sense of place.
6) I think this is the ideal that we must strive for. This is a freeflow of ideas.
Where cultures bounce off one another. They combine and interact, yet keep
their own distinct feel. I think it is certainly possible to have this new sense of
place. What holds this back is power dynamics between the people living in
the area. The people who have lived there seem to hold the power and they
wish to retain that power. The people moving in feel powerless and they
strive to gain power. Then the place becomes a power struggle of cultures,
hence the reactionary stance. If people were not concerned with power, and
willing to let the ideas flow freely without the fear of the ir culture or power
being infringed upon, Masseys sense of place could exist.