CONWORLD Chapter 7

• Global city


  An urban centre that enjoys significant competitive advantages and that serves as a hub within a globalized economic system
• Global city


  • Originated from research on cities in the 1980s examining common characteristics of the world's most important cities
  • Linked with globalization and the idea of spatial reorganization, with cities becoming key loci within global networks of production, finance, and telecommunications
• What constitutes a global city

  Primarily economic - cities like New York, London, and Tokyo that are hubs of global finance and capitalism
• Global cities are categorized based on the global reach of organizations found in them
• There are inequalities both between global cities and within each global city
• Cities are major beneficiaries of globalization but also the most severely impacted by global problems
• Indicators of a global city

  • Seats of economic power
  • Centers of authority
  • Centers of political influence
  • Centers of higher learning and culture
  • Economic opportunities
  • Economic competitiveness
• Cities are the engines of globalization, acting as social magnets and growing faster and faster
• In 2000, there were 18 megacities (over 10 million population), and the Hong Kong/Guangzhou area had perhaps 120 million inhabitants
• Urban growth is faster outside the Western world, fastest in the poorest areas of Africa and Asia, producing the most serious problems
• Movement into cities increases political voice and participation as previously isolated rural populations become players
• As the pace of growth accelerates, the distinguishing cultural features of established historical cities become diluted and institutional forms of governance and services fail to keep up
• Demography


  The study of populations with reference to size and density, fertility, mortality, growth, age distribution, immigration, and vital statistics, and the interaction of all these with social and economic conditions
• Demographic transition started in the mid- or late 1700s in Europe, with death rates and fertility beginning to decline
• Fertility decline in Asia did not begin until the 1950s, resulting in rapid population growth after WWII and affecting the age structure of Asia and the developing world
• The West had an increased share of the world's population from 22.0% to 33.0% during the demographic transition, while Asia and Oceania's contribution dropped from 69.0% to 56.7%
• There was a reverse in global population shares during the 20th century as Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania had high levels of population growth rates
• The United States projects that by 2150, Africa's share of the world population will be almost 20%, relatively much greater than its share in 1480 (same percent) and in 1900 (6%)
• The overall trend in the dependency ratio gap between Japan/the West and the developing countries like India and the Philippines was downward, although temporarily higher for Japan and the developing countries at certain points
• Demographic transition theory


  Suggests that future population growth will develop along a predictable four- or five-stage model, from pre-industrial high birth and death rates, to declining death rates, to declining birth rates
• Stage 1


  1. Death rates and birth rates are high and roughly in balance

  2. Growth rates were less than 0.05% at least since the Agricultural Revolution over 10,000 years ago

  3. Population growth is typically very slow because the society is constrained by the available food supply
• Stage 1


  • United States in the 1800s
• Stage 2


  1. Death rates drop rapidly due to improvements in food supply and sanitation, which increase life spans and reduce disease

  2. Improvements in crop rotation, farming technology, basic health, and public health
• Stage 2


  • Afghanistan
• Stage 3


  1. Birth rates fall due to factors such as access to contraception, increases in wages, urbanization, a reduction in subsistence agriculture, an increase in the status and education of women, a reduction in the value of children's work, an increase in parental investment in the education of children and other social changes

  2. Population growth begins to level off
• Stage 3


  • Mexico
• Stage 4


  1. Both birth rates and death rates are low

  2. Birth rates may drop to well below replacement level, leading to a shrinking population and a threat to many industries that rely on population growth

  3. Death rates in developed countries increase slightly due to increases in obesity and an aging population
• Stage 4


  • Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden
• Stage 5


  1. Debated whether there is a separate fifth stage with low-replacement fertility levels or a different stage five involving an increase in fertility

  2. The United Nations Population Fund categorizes nations as high-fertility, intermediate-fertility, or low-fertility
• Globalization has made migration possible and an inevitable fact
• Global migration


  A situation in which people go to live in foreign countries, especially to find a job
• Types of migration


  • Internal migration (within one country)
  • International migration (across country borders)
• International migration groups


  • Permanent immigrants
  • Temporary workers
  • Illegal immigrants
  • Migrants whose families have permitted them to move
  • Refugees
• Many countries face issues of illegal migration, such as the US-Mexico border fence
• Push factors


  Factors that induce people to move out of their present location
• Pull factors


  Factors that induce people to move into a new location
• Factors underlying global migration

  • Cultural factors
  • Socio-political factors
  • Environmental factors
  • Economic factors
• Remittances sent by migrants can improve the lives of recipients, reduce poverty, increase education, and boost foreign reserves in the home country
• The Philippines, India, and China are major recipients of remittances
• The total number of international migrants globally has increased from 84 million in 1970 to 244 million in 2015