global politics and the making of global city regions

Concentrated into just 2% of the world’s surface, the great urban hubs now hold half of the world’s population, and it is estimated that by 2050 over 75% of the world’s population will live in cities.

The rural world of yesterday has been uprooted, as populations have either been drawn from the land to seek the opportunities that only city life can offer, or pushed out from traditional agricultural occupations by a combination of technological advance and structural adjustment programmes. One clear marker of urban transformation has been the sheer scale of contemporary cities. These changes have been widely noted, but what is less often remarked upon is that there is a link between urban transformation and the emergence of a new form of global political order. New urban forms have emerged that possess unique features and characteristics that mark them apart from earlier forms of cities. Over the course of the last four decades a remarkable transformation has taken place in cities around the world. These developments point to the crucial role that cities will play in the future of global politics. Below, Simon Curtis argues that as components of a nascent global order, cities have been endowed with new capacities, and are taking on new governance roles.

What is less often remarked upon is that the relative empowerment of cities is rooted in a wider transformation of international political order.

The remarkable transformation of the world’s major cities over recent decades has been widely noted as being driven by a restructuring of the global economy.

Special Report: How to Lead the Changing Japan.

Global politics and the making of global city regions