Twenty Years of Global Cities: Ideas, myths and new evidences

Abstract

The analysis of data on global corporation sales showed that economic globalization has been neither a steady set of processes, nor been dominated by a few sectors linked to emerging technologies. Actually, it has followed phases, each characterized by the changing roles of different sectors. Areas of the old economy, especially mining and oil production refining and motor vehicles parts followed different temporal trends, but remained among the most globally relevant. The location of corporation headquarters showed a trend for higher dispersion, with declining relevance of traditional major centers like New York and Tokyo, and the emergence of new secondary centers, especially in Europe and East Asia. But it also showed both that diversification and lack of convergence are the norm at the top of the global city hierarchy.