“Beyond the global city concept and the myth of ‘command and control’”

This chapter argues that the way of thinking about cities in globalization and about the role and function of a certain type of city as the nec plus ultra locations for subjecting a world economy to control, coordination and ‘command’, is a mistake. The specific idea of certain cities having a ‘strategic role’ in controlling the world’s economy is relatively new and can be traced back to a handful of authors writing in the 1970s and 1980s who focused on multinational corporations in cities as the locus of control for the world economy. One headquarters can never logically have the effect of defining a ‘global command centre’ because it is completely autonomous in its operations and relations to all the other different firms’ headquarter offices. Indeed, a location is chosen by an investment bank for more than the, nevertheless undoubtedly highly important, technological reason of winning a ‘speed contest’ against its rivals for competitive advantage.