Cultural And Economic Authority

Cultural And Economic Authority

Geography Essay – World cities
Discuss the roles played by world cities as powerful centres for economic and cultural authority.

A world city is a large city that is part of the international global system that has been outstripped of its urban network. World cities have developed due to the growing effects of globalization. The major world cities have developed beyond their former role as centres for international trade and banking to become centres of political power, world trade, banking and finance and are telecommunications hubs. World cities also serve as centres of cultural authority which comes from their ability to generate and spread ideas and values, and influence specific cultural processes. Ultimately, world cities control the flow of 3 areas: finance, corporate headquarters/infrastructure and the operation of global networks. However, the role of world cities is better understood by analysing New York, London and Hong Kong to explain the function of world cities. These three world cities effectively highlight the major role of world cities in international economies as powerful centres of economic and cultural authority.
World cities are centres of economic authority, centres in the borderless domain of the global economy. World cities home the world’s dominant stock exchanges and the largest banks as well as major concentrations of overseas finance companies. Wall Street (New York) is an example of the largest stock index system in the world which manages the Dow Jones as well of the NASDAQ, collectively holding trillions of dollars worth of investment. HFT or ‘high frequency trading’ has made it possible to trade shares in milliseconds, further accentuating technological progression in the financial sector. Therefore, New York and other world cities influence the value of other country’s currencies as well as the flow of both finance and investment throughout the world. World cities are fundamentally “command” centres that hold...