ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part discusses both material and symbolic elements of culture in globalizing cities by examining cultural production, cultural strategies, and cultural politics of representation. The most direct and intuitive connection to culture made in the literature on global cities has been in work on multiculturalism. Cultural dynamics figure crucially in the production of built environments, urban form, and sociospatial divisions around the world, from the global cities of the West to the expanding metropolises of the global South. Public and academic debates on urbanism have been strongly influenced by the notion of creativity, which is frequently invoked as the key to industrial renewal and urban revitalization. In many ways, global cities research has itself been permeated by a form of cultural imperialism insofar as it has been grounded predominantly upon Western cultural forms and intellectual paradigms.
