ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that social media can make visible the poor and the less powerful, especially those located in global cities. It suggests that a rethinking of the traditional local/global dualism. Among the actors in the political landscape are a variety of organizations focused on trans-boundary issues concerning immigration, asylum, international women’s agendas, alter-globalization struggles, and many others. While these are not necessarily urban in their orientation or genesis, they tend to converge in cities. The cross-border network of global cities is a space where we are seeing the formation of new types of ‘global’ politics of place that contest corporate globalization, environmental and human rights abuses, and so on. The demonstrations by the alter-globalization movement signal the potential for developing a politics centered on places understood as locations on global networks. The mix of focused activism and local/global networks represented by the organizations creates conditions for the emergence of at least partly transnational identities.
