Manila’s Place in the World

Beginning in the 1980s, the “global city” concept has captured the attention of geographers and other social scientists.2 Global (or world) cities are conceived as “control centers” or “command points” in the organization of the world economy and thus are viewed as critical to the processes of globalization. Cities such as New York, London, and Tokyo, for example, are viewed as sites of “massive complexes of financial firms, producer services, and corporate headquarters.”3