Additional information
by Doreen Massey (Author)
Cities around the world are striving to be global. This book tells the story of one of them, and in so doing raises questions which are essential for all cities. These questions concern identity, place, and political responsibility in the changing geographies of our times. The book also tells the story of the rise of a new class, of deepening inequality, and of the geographical imaginations that are mobilised to legitimate the increasing dominance of these powerful metropoles. In so doing, it sets the global city in its wider geographical and political context.
World City focuses its account on London, one of the greatest of these global cities. London is a city of delight and of creativity, of the generation of vast wealth and of acute poverty. It also presides over a country increasingly divided between North and South and over a neo-liberal form of globalisation the deregulation, financialisation and commercialisation of all aspects of life that results in an evermore unequal world.
World City explores how we can understand this complex narrative and asks a question that should be asked of any city: what does this place stand for?
This book will appeal to students of human geography, politics and sociology as well as to the general reader.
Back Jacket
Cities around the world are striving to be 'global'. This book tells the story of one of them, and in so doing raises questions of identity, place and political responsibility that are essential for all cities.
World City focuses its account on London, one of the greatest of these global cities. London is a city of delight and of creativity. It also presides over a country increasingly divided between North and South and over a neo-liberal form of globalisation - the deregulation, financialisation and commercialisation of all aspects of life - that is resulting in an evermore unequal world.
World City explores how we can understand this complex narrative and asks a question that should be asked of any city: what does this place stand for?
Following the implosion within the financial sector, such issues are even more vital. In a new Preface, Doreen Massey addresses these changed times. She argues that, whatever happens, the evidence of this book is that we must not go back to 'business as usual', and she asks whether the financial crisis might open up a space for a deeper rethinking of both our economy and our society.
Author Biography
Doreen Massey is Professor of Geography at the Open University.
