Finding the global city: An analytical journey through the 'invisible college'

Abstract

Saskia Sassen's concept of the 'global city' has evolved in a complex relation with other urban, economic and social students that deal with these strategic sites of the contemporary global urban architecture. This multidisciplinary set of authors could be metaphorically grouped within what John Friedmann described as the 'invisible college' of world city researchers. In light of this tradition, the global city is described here in its various theoretical guises, in a chronological account from the early 1900s roots to present-day formulations, in order to establish an eclectic understanding that can speak beyond the college, opening the dialogue on globalisation and cities beyond urban studies. In this sense, the essay describes the 'global city' as the status of connectedness to the global attained by some world cities, which rests upon an urban entrepreneurial spirit that situates these metropolises as the strategic hinges of globalisation.