ABSTRACT

Arguing that the focus in global urban studies on cities such as New York, London, Tokyo in the global North, Mexico City and Shanghai in the developing world, and other major nodes of the world economy, has skewed the concept of the global city toward economics, this volume gathers a diverse group of contributors to focus on smaller and less economically dominant cities. It highlights other important and relatively ignored themes such as cultural globalization, alternative geographies of the global, and the influence of deeper urban histories (particularly those relating to colonialism) in order to advance an alternative view of the global city.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

Bringing the Less Familiar Cities In and Together

part I|58 pages

Urban Present and past

chapter 1|18 pages

Competitive Globalization and Urban Change

The Allure of Cultural Strategies

chapter 2|18 pages

The Trajectories of Two “asian Tigers”

The Imperial Roots of Capitalism in Dubai and Singapore

chapter 3|21 pages

Shaping Politics in Chinatown

The Intersection of Global Politics and Community Politics in Wartime and Cold War San Francisco

part II|92 pages

Urban Contraction and Expansion

chapter 4|16 pages

Staggering Job Loss, a Shrinking Revenue Base, and Grinding Decline

Springfield, Massachusetts, in a Globalized Economy

chapter 5|16 pages

From Cars to Casinos

Global Pasts and Local Futures in the Detroit-Windsor Transnational Metropolitan Area

chapter 6|20 pages

From a Fishing Village via an Instant City to a Secondary Global City

The “Miracle” and Growth Pains of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in China

chapter 7|23 pages

The Third Coming of China's Special Economic Zones

The Rise and Regional Dimensions of Tianjin Binhai New Area

chapter 8|16 pages

Social Accountability in African Cities

Comparing Participatory Budgeting in Johannesburg and Harare 1

part III|87 pages

The Contested Urban Arena

chapter 10|18 pages

Off Limits and out of Bounds

Taxi Driver Perceptions of Dangerous People and Places in Kunming, China

chapter 11|22 pages

Seats of Differences

Coffeehouses and the Geo-Economics of Gender in Contemporary Inner-City Tunis

chapter 12|18 pages

From the “margins of the Margins” in Brazil

Black Women Confront the Racial Logic of Spatial Exclusion