ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the account of the world city hypothesis – initialized by J. Friedmann and developed by S. Sassen and other postmodern urban scholars – has a significant presence in the accounts and contemporary practices of union renewal. The world city hypothesis has influenced a number of commentators of urban change who have built models of how cities increasingly are shaped by global flows of capital and people. Indeed, the strength of such accounts is the way forces operating at multiple scales transform the urban landscape. The world city thesis also emphasizes the intensification of a hierarchical network of cities with increasingly heterogeneous labor markets. Economic strength is gained by successfully tapping international flows of capital, information and the transnational elites that run through the networks of global metropolitan centers. A key tenet of the world city thesis is that dominant classes are increasingly confronted by diverse groups from the global margins.
