Emerging Global Cities: Origin, Structure, and Significance

by Alejandro Portes, Ariel C Armony

Certain cities—most famously New York, London, and Tokyo—have been identified as “global cities,” whose function in the world economy transcends national borders. Without the same fanfare, formerly peripheral and secondary cities have been growing in importance, emerging as global cities in their own right. The striking similarity of the skylines of Dubai, Miami, and Singapore is no despite following different historical paths, all three have achieved newfound prominence through parallel trends.

In this groundbreaking book, Alejandro Portes and Ariel C. Armony demonstrate how the rapid and unexpected rise of these three cities recasts global urban studies. They identify the constellation of factors that allow certain urban places to become “emerging global cities”—centers of commerce, finance, art, and culture for entire regions. The book traces the transformations of Dubai, Miami, and Singapore, identifying key features common to these emerging global cities. It contrasts them with “global hopefuls,” cities that, at one point or another, aspired to become global, and analyzes how Hong Kong is threatened with the loss of this status. Portes and Armony highlight the importance of climate change to the prospects of emerging global cities, showing how the same economic system that propelled their rise now imperils their future. Emerging Global Cities provides a powerful new framework for understanding the role of peripheral cities in the world economy and how they compete for and sometimes achieve global standing.

535 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 27, 2022

Reviews

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to thank everyone that allowed me to read this book in exchange for a review.
It is very and I mean very well organized and it makes it easy to understand what is being discussed in the book. I had no prior knowledge and noticed that it was detailed. Many will be able to comprehend Emerging Global Cities. I enjoyed this and the contents of the book.

[Tawney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever looked at a picture of Dubai and asked yourself, "How did that come to be?" There are definite factors that facilitate or impede a city's rise to prominence. Among them are economics, geography, politics and luck. Many cities aspire to regional or global dominance, but only a few arrive. This book examines the hows and whys. Post Industrial economies need concentrations of financial and commercial logistics. This brings a hollowing out of the middle class and greater disparity between the classes. Dubai, Miami and Singapore have different stories, but common threads within them. Other cities examined don't quite make it to the top tier because they can't offer the stability and regard for law or some other necessary factor. But the world is a dynamic place and rising sea level is going to cause great disruption. (When I ticked off the list including Lagos, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo my husband quipped that its actually Submerging Global Cities.) Or maybe something else. History is full of surprises. Maybe Dubai isn't the only thing built on sand.

I received this very enlightening book compliments of Columbia University Press and NetGalley.