ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part explains significant departures from the traditional research agenda of global cities. It aims to extend the original “mission” of global city research further into a more elaborate agenda for research on particular centralities, such as command and control functions in cities under a regime of financialization. While each of the contributions comes with a different set of assumptions on globalizing urbanization, they share the notion that the debate has to move away from any fixed notions of the “city.” Research on globalizing cities, offers us some bearings, some intellectual and political grounding, as we attempt to orient theirselves within the disjointed, yet profoundly authoritarian, new world order. There are political options, and there are different ways of doing research on global cities.
