The Global City

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1992 "This is brilliant stuff, both in its broadness of sociological scope and its voluminous collection of data from a vast number of sources in the three cities."--Scott Lash, The Times Higher Education Supplement "A very significant book indeed... A systematic detailed analysis of the three largest urban economies in the advanced world."--Peter Hall, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research "[A] high-powered and at times horrific book. Sassen shows how dangerously city life has been affected by the influx of employees of the multinational firms which move into major cities and virtually colonize them, riving even greater wedges between the rich and poor."--The Observer "A landmark study in the political economy of cities."--Anthony King, Newsline "The most detailed and sophisticated anatomy yet published of the functioning of the new producer services sector in the global economy."--Mark Levine, Urban Affairs Quarterly "The implications of Sassen's research ... are sobering."--Rudolf Klein, Times Literary Supplement "An exciting and persuasive work. It incorporates a herculean research effort."--Susan Fainstein, Journal of the American Planning Association "A multi-disciplinary tour de force that should be read not only by regional economists but also by urban geographers, sociologists, and planners."--Development and Change

Saskia Sassen is Professor of Sociology and of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. Her other books include Guests and Aliens, The Mobility of Labor and Capital, Losing Control, and Globalization and Its Discontents.

List of Tables xi Preface to the New Edition xvii Acknowledgments xxv One Overview 3 PART ONE: THE GEOGRAPHY AND COMPOSITION OF GLOBALIZATION 17 Two Dispersal and New Forms of Centralization 23 Mobility and Agglomeration 24 Capital Mobility and Labor Market Formation 32 Conclusion 34 Three New Patterns in Foreign Direct Investment 37 Major Patterns 37 International Transactions in Services 44 Conclusion 63 Four Internationalization and Expansion of the Financial Industry 65 Conditions and Components of Growth 66 The Global Capital Market Today 74 Financial Crises 78 Conclusion 83 PART TWO: THE ECONOMIC ORDER OF THE GLOBAL CITY 85 Five The Producer Services 90 The Category Services 92 The Spatial Organization of Finance 110 New Forms of Centrality 122 Conclusion 126 Six Global Cities: Postindustrial Production Sites 127 Location of Producer Services: Nation, Region, and City 130 New Elements in the Urban Hierarchy 140 Conclusion 167 Seven Elements of a Global Urban System: Networks and Hierarchies 171 Towards Networked Systems 172 Expansion and Concentration 175 Leading Currencies in International Transactions 187 The International Property Market 190 Conclusion 195 PART THREE: THE SOCIAL ORDER OF THE GLOBAL CITY 197 Eight Employment and Earnings 201 Three Cities, One Tale? 201 Earnings 221 Conclusion 249 Nine Economic Restructuring as Class and Spatial Polarization 251 Overall Effects of Leading Industries 252 Social Geography 256 Consumption 284 Casual and Informal Labor Markets 289 Race and Nationality in the Labor Market 305 Conclusion 323 IN CONCLUSION 327 Ten A New Urban Regime? 329 Epilogue 345 The Global City Model 346 The Financial Order 355 The Producer Services 359 Social and Spatial Polarization 361 Appendices A Classification of Producer Services by U.S., Japanese, and British SIC 367 B Definitions of Urban Units: Tokyo, London, New York 369 C Population of Selected Prefectures and Major Prefectural Cities 373 D Tokyo's Land Market 374 Bibliography 383 Index 435