London is one of the most powerful global cities in the world due to its strong financial and economic influence as well as cultural impact. It maintains political ties from its former colonial empire and English is a global language. London has the largest stock exchange in Europe and leads the world in industries like insurance and currency exchange. The city also exerts significant soft power through tourism, universities, and creative industries. As a result, London remains a dominant economic center and global capital despite no longer heading an empire.

1. Territories in globalization
→ Is globalization leading to a more united
world ?

2. I) The globalized world: cores and uneven
integration
A) Three major cores with different characteristics
Some group of states or regions have a strong economical,
military and cultural influence on the world.

3. How do you call such a map?

4. Anamorphosis maps of the world show 3 major areas: North America,
European Union and Eastern Asia.

5. Let's open a bracket about the indicators we use. What are the
indicators which are used here?... In English !

6. → The GDP is the market value of all officially recognized final
goods and services produced within a country in a year. GDP
per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's
standard of living.
Sometimes, you'll see GDP in « PPP »: what does it mean ?

7. → PPP means « purchasing parity product »... which means
that the local cost of life has been taken into account, thus
making comparisons between countries more reliable.
The GDP in PPP per capita is the indicator which is taken into
account to calculate the HDI... which is... ?

8. → the Human Development Indicator is a composite statistic
of life expectancy, education, and income indices.
Does the HDI lead to a different ranking?

9. → Actually, not really: very rich countries are also the most
developed countries. But in some precise cases there can be
some differences: do you know which ones?

10. → Cuba is quite a poor country with a « not so bad » level of
development (2013: 59th HDI/92nd GDP).
Saudi Arabia is the contrary: a quite rich country with a « not
so good » level of development (2013: 57th HDI/28th GDP)
Ok, let's close the bracket now...

11. The importance of
these 3 main areas
can be seen on a
map of the world
trade.

12. Be careful: in the 80's, people used to talk about the « Triad »...
It was an idea of a Japanese scientist which found a great success
in France, but not in the English-speaking world...
And moreover, it is now widely out of date since the rise of
China.
So if you have to use this word, always say « Triad plus China »
1) The 3 major cores

13. Reasons to be
powerful 
Demography
Economical
influence
Military and
diplomatic
influence
Scientific and
cultural
influence
USA + Canada = 350
M, only 5% of the
world's population
(6,7 incl. Mexico).
BUT high standard of
living and
demographic growth
(thanks to
immigration).
Many natural
resources.
¼ of the world's
production, 1/3 of the
500 biggest TNCs
Wall Street: first stock
exchange, from far
Dollar = international
currency
First military
power, able to get
involved quickly all
over the world
Worldwide
influence:
language, research,
medias, Internet,
music,...
23% of the world's
production. Many
TNCs, dynamic
exchanges inside
the area
Some powerful
countries but no
military union
Good cultural
influence (medias,
research) but behind
the USA.
Strong touristic
attractiveness
22% of the world's
production. Chinese
growth is necessary
to the world's
economy. Growing
number of TNCs
Important military
efforts from China
No union between
the different
powerful countries
Limited cultural
influence
Rising research
Powerful places
North America:
everything to be
a superpower
European Union: EU: 500 M, 7 %
unachieved
of the world's
superpower
population.
Getting older
Eastern Asia: a
rising area
1,5 billion, 21 % of
the world's
population
High level of poverty:
400 M people with <
2$/day
population could get
older

14. 2) Issues and tendencies
•Northern America: n°1 but...

15. -the American model of economic growth, very polluting, can no
longer be a model for the rest of the world
-The USA have to face a huge deficit, they rely on Chinese loans
-Mexico is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) but is also clearly less rich and developed

16. • The European Union: assertion or crisis?
-it’s a unique example of a 28 countries union, with a will to limit
uneven development
-the enlargement to central and eastern Europe has been good
for economic growth, and the European Union would like to
do the same with Turkey
-the 2008 crisis showed that this union remained difficult to rule
and very uneven, heterogeneous

17. • Eastern Asia:
→ on what relies the rise of
this area?
In the early 1960s, the British colony of Hong
Kong became the first of the four Asian Tiger
economies by developing strong textile and
manufacturing industries and by the 1970s, had
solidified itself as a global financial center and
was quickly turning into a developed economy.
Following in the footsteps of Hong Kong, the
nations of South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore
soon quickly industrialized thanks to government
policies. By 1997, the four Asian Tiger economies
joined Japan as East Asia's developed
economies.
Present growth in East Asia has now shifted to
China and the Tiger Cub Economies of the
Southeast Asian countries of Thailand, Indonesia,
Malaysia, and the Philippines. Since the end of
the 20th century, Japan's role as the principal
economic power in the region has shifted to the
Four Asian Tiger economies and more recently,
China, which became world's second largest
economy in 2010.

18. • Eastern Asia:
-to understand its rise we have to talk about the « flying goose
paradigm », a theory of the 30's which postulated that Asian
nations will catch up with the West as a part of a regional
hierarchy where the production of commoditized goods would
continuously move from the more advanced countries to the less
advanced ones... and which has been widely confirmed by what
happened !

20. In fact, we can observe that:
-there are more and more industrialized countries in Asia
-there is a shift from labor-intensive production to capital-intensive
activities

21. -We also have to
remember that
contrasts among China
are still very strong,
which is both an
advantage (cheap
workforce) and a
challenge (risks of
social conflicts)

22. -this is also the only area with strong political divisions, with
tenses between countries. North Korea is also a major problem.
At least, EU and Asia strongly rely on the rest of the world for
their raw material supply, which is not the case for the USA.

23. B) Centers and open places in these areas of power
→Let's move to a medium or large scale:

24. There are some important nodes in the areas we already
studied: the global cities.
Global cities are powerful cities thanks to the headquarters of
TNCs, to the importance of FIRE activities (which means
Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) or banking activities, but also
thanks to their creative industries and their cultural influence.
Decisions taken in these cities have consequences all over the
world.

25. These global cities can be ranked by
different ways.
Here's a ranking made by a university:

26. Here's another one made by the magazine « Foreign Policy »

27. In these global cities, we will find always the same kind of
landscape:

28. -Central Business Districts (here's Chicago) concentrating
economical power

29. -huge airline hubs (Heathrow airport, London) allowing easy travels
to the rest of the world

30. -research centers situated in the suburbs (here's Tsukuba, near
Tokyo)

31. Around the most powerful global cities we can find some
megalopolises, which are chains of metropolitan areas and
include dozens of million people.
There are 3 main megalopolises (according to the French
geography program):

32. -the American megalopolis
-the European megalopolis
-the « East-Asian
megalopolitan archipelago »

33. 1) Similarities between the three main megalopolises

34. • A high number of global cities
Pay attention to the fact that, on this map, the size of the circles is linked to the power
of the city, not to its population

35. • Busy port regions
(In French, we use the word « interface », but in English it has no
geographical sense...)
All megalopolises need busy port regions which enable them to
be closely connected to the rest of the world.
What we call in French
(but which is not used in
English !!!) the
« Northern Range » is the
port region of European
megalopolis

36. 2) What's different between the 3 megalopolises
• The American megalopolis

37. It's the most heavily urbanized region of North America,
spanning from Boston to Washington, and supporting 55
million inhabitants. Sometimes, this area is grouped with the
Great Lakes Megalopolis (another 55 millions).
Its advantages:
-Financial power

38. New York stock
exchanges stay from
far the first ones in
the world.
Most of raw
materials are listed
(=cotées) on the
Chicago Board of
Trade.

39. -political power: White House in Washington, United Nations in
NY

40. -cultural influence: famous universities, such as Harvard, but also
artistic creation

41. • The European megalopolis covers a space between London
and Milano, and between Paris and Hamburg, around the
Rhine valley.
It has about 100 million inhabitants
Espace rhénan

42. Its advantages:
-political and financial power of London and Paris
-internationally recognized universities (Oxford, HEC)

43. -easy travelling thanks to open borders and good infrastructure

44. -cultural wealth which makes it the first touristic place in the
world

47. • The « East-Asian megalopolitan archipelago »
-the Japanese megalopolis is still the most important one, with
100 million inhabitants and a outstanding network
Trains à grande vitesse
« Shinkansen »

48. It is dominated by the
world's biggest city,
Tokyo (33 million
inhabitants)
Tokyo Sky Tree tower, 634 m

49. -why talking about « archipelago » ?
 Economical relations between the Japanese megalopolis and
the Korean, Taiwanese global cities, and also Singapore have
been increasing and are now really close.

50.  There are other megalopolises which are growing quickly,
among which:
*the Pearl River Delta (between 70 to 100 million inhabitants)
*the Yangtze River Delta, around Shanghai (about 80 million
inhabitants)

51. Those « cores » are clearly ruling the world
 What about the rest of the world?

52. C) The rest of the world: an uneven integration

53. 1) How to get integrated
A poor country has to increase its commercial relations with rich
countries...

54. • ...by selling raw materials

55. Raw materials enable to earn money, because the growing
demand makes prices grow
But...

56. -they are rarely enough to make a country really rich (uranium in
Niger)
-there can be wars because of them, to control them
-the money is often misappropriated and misused: Russia sells
oil and gaz instead of trying to be attractive by modernizing
its economy
So most of these countries are only partially integrated.

57. • ...by being part of the IDL
They attract TNCs inward investments, mostly thanks to their
cheap and « obedient » workforce (« » because people have
no right to disagree...)
Textile workers in
Bangladesh

58. Many countries (Morocco, Turkey, Vietnam, Bangladesh) try to
follow the way East Asia went, increasing slowly the skills of their
workforce to attract new investments.

59. In spite of strong inequalities and hard working conditions, this
process enables economic growth and improvement of the living
conditions, transforming slowly these countries into
consumption markets... and thus attracting new investments.

60. 2) An accelerating integration
•Many big emerging countries are now major economic agents
of the world: Brazil, India, South Africa are, with China of course,
asserting their power, in spite of internal malfunctioning and
inequalities.

61. Powerful global cities (Mumbai, Sao Paulo) have a growing influence
in the world
« positive » view of São Paulo

62. • Even if these countries need investments from rich countries'
TNCs, their demographic weight and their vast territories
enable them to be more and more independent, and even
enable them to invest abroad.
This is accelerating the integration of territories which had been
excluded till recently: China is directly exploiting many African
resources

63. Of course, integration does not mean paradise...

64. 3) Excluded countries
Some countries stay almost completely appart from the
globalized economy.
These countries are at war (eg. Somalia) or claim that they are
self-sufficient (North Korea). The living conditions there are
really hard.

65. London
Chicago
New York
Paris
Beijing
Tokyo
China
India
Mexico
Hong
kong
Mumbai
Singapore
Brazil
Sao Paulo
Johannesburg
South
Africa
cores
mégalopolis
Main global city
Brazil
emerging power

66. II) A global City: London

67. A) the power of London is linked to its past
Great Britain was the most powerful colonial Empire, and
London was its capital. Even if this Empire doesn't exist anymore,
its legacy is important:

68. -London kept close diplomatic relations with a lot of countries,
especially with countries of the Commonwealth.
 So we can say that London has a strong political influence

69. -English is spoken all
over the world,
which makes London
a possible
destination for
migrations.
As a result, London is
a multicultural and
multiethnic city

70. -London also remains the center of the world, thanks to its huge
airlines hub, with 6 airports connected to 390 destinations and 135
million passengers per year.

71. But above all, London managed to keep its financial power,
which remains really strong:

72. B) A global city through its economic power and
cultural influence
1)One of the first economic centers in the world
Finance and insurance are leading the economic power of
London

73. London is the third stock exchange in the world, and even ranks first
for transportation insurances and currency (devises) market

74. The London Stock Exchange, in its brand new 2004 buildings (on the
right-hand side)

75. Llyod’s headquarters
(insurance stock exchange)

76. • Its advantages :
-good position in terms of time zones
-in the heart of a network inherited from colonization
-English language, which is the world language for trade
-an activity strongly supported by the political power

77. We can say that London kept a « know-how » widely recognized
all over the world

78. 2) The cultural influence
• Thanks to « creative industry »
-first European place for edition
-famous newspapers (the Times, the Guardian)
-large cultural supply
But also a university city if we include Oxford and Cambridge,
which are only 50 km away from London

79. • Thanks to tourism: 23 million tourists per year
Tower Bridge

80. 3) The 2012 Olympics, or how to show London
power to the world
Thanks to the Olympic games, London
showed its dynamism to the world

81. The Olympic park was build in a poor neighborhood of the East
End, so as to renew it

82. The Olympic village was widely transformed into housing
of people

83. C) The centers of the power of London: the example of
the City
The City is the historical business district of London

84. There can be found the main financial activities

85. architectural dynamism

87. …which makes year after year the landscape more vertical

88. This dynamism is the proof of the preeminence of the City, even if
there is a second business district in Canary Wharf

89. D) A global city in its environment
1) At a local scale: the metropolitan area of a global city

90. London is leading the first urban area of Europe, with 12 million
inhabitants, but also the richest one, with a GDP of 460 billion dollars
(as much as Austrian or Argentinian GDP… !)

91. Town planning operations are driven to fight poverty (eg. Olympic
village)

92. But what is the consequence of these operations?

93. But these planning operations also reject the poor to the
outer suburbs...

94. We can find in London the same paradox than in most global
cities: some neighborhoods are closer from the world than from
outer suburbs…

95. 2) London, capital of the UK, European capital?
•London dominates the UK:
The Greater London supports 14% of the british population, but:
-20% of GDP
-50% of legal activities (activités juridiques)
-81% of broadcasting activities !
It seems to be huge, but in a way it’s normal: in the UK, only
London is able to attract those kind of very rare activities.

96. • Ambiguous relationship with Europe:
-close links: with its 4 airports, the Eurostar line, London is
perfectly connected to the mainland.
London attracts students and workers from all Europe: there may
be between 300 to 400 000 French in London

97. -a deep fondness for independence
London is also the less European of EU’s global cities. The British
government strongly defends its monetary and banking
independence from the will of EU control !

98. Conclusion :
London is a global city with a strong dynamism, il spite of local
inequalities.
At the London scale we can find some of the issues of the
globalization, with integrated and excluded spaces, and with a
slow trend to progress.