Globalisation Discussion Board Post

Discussion

Both readings assigned for this week refer to the concept of globalisation and the introduction of world cities as the climax of this phenomenon. As the authors state, the cities are often ranked based on their role in the international labour market and the ability to serve and deliver in order to support the financial, trade, and other business activities of the world’s largest companies and corporations (Friedmann, 1986). Given the modern trends, the futurists predict that the world's cities will emerge all over the globe, and currently existing nation-states would be of less importance than the cities. Moreover, international corporations are seen to obtain more power in the upcoming decades as they operate in various markets and countries, changing their social, legal, and economic landscapes, therefore gaining more impact and responsibility.

Interestingly, corporations nowadays have a higher percentage of trust as expressed by people in the global surveys, as compared to the politicians, churches, and other respectable organisations. Most likely, the reason is the raising of corporate social responsibility as a trend and the fact that many companies have started to stand for some values. It makes the customers join and support them in certain movements, such as those advocating for the action plan against climate change.

One of the things that I would, however, disagree with is that the authors presume that the world city will become polarised, where perhaps there would be the elite associates gaining much of wealth. On the other hand, there would be a significant number of low-paying employees performing trivial jobs (Brenner & Keil, 2014). In my opinion, the population of the cities nowadays consists of the middle class mostly, and it will remain the same. The share of the elite might slightly increase, but it will not affect the big picture.