This book is a major and original contribution to global city analysis. It is the best and most exhaustive treatment of global cities as political actors in a space that goes well beyond the national.
Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, author of Expulsions
A path-breaking study. Ljungkvist powerfully rethinks conceptions and implications of the global city.
Jan Aart Scholte, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
The Global City 2.0
Global cities all over the world are taking on new roles as they increasingly participate directly and independently in international affairs and global politics. So far, surprisingly few studies have analyzed the role of the Global City beyond its already well-explicated role in the globalized economy. How is it that local governments of Global Cities claim political authority in global politics and develop what appears to be their own independent foreign and security policies despite the fact that such policy areas have traditionally been considered to be the core function of nation-states and central governments? What does it mean to be and to govern the contemporary Global City?
In this book Kristin Ljungkvist claims that we can better understand why local governments find it to be in their Global Citys interest to claim political authority in global politics by exploring how the citys role in the globalized world is constructed and narrated locally. A core claim is that Global City-hood as a specific type of collective identity can play a constitutive part in such interest formation. Combining insights from International Relations and Urban Studies scholarship, and with the help of a case study on New York City, Ljungkvist develops a new analytical framework for studying the Global City as a political actor in world politics.
The Global City 2.0 shows that even as the Global City engages in various global issues such as global environmental governance or counterterrorism, such pursuit will be framed and rationalized in terms of the citys economic growth. The quest for growth and global competitiveness are not necessarily the only available meanings attached to the being and governing of the contemporary Global City. However, there seems to be a remarkable persistency and attraction in economistic ideas and an economistic conception of the Global City.
Kristin Ljungkvist is a researcher at the Department of Government and Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her current research interests include global cities and urban politics, security governance, globalization, gender and International Relations, European security and Critical Infrastructure Protection.
Cities and Global Governance
Edited by Noah J. Toly, Wheaton College
The Routledge series Cities and Global Governance is composed of contributed volumes covering key areas of study at the intersection of urbanism and global governance. Each title explores dimensions of the relationship between the local and the global, between urban landscapes and global dynamics. Authors in the series make empirical and theoretical contributions that advance our understanding of the role of cities as sites and actors in global governance.
1 Cities, Networks, and Global Environmental Governance
Spaces of Innovation, Places of Leadership
Sofie Bouteligier
2 The Power of Cities in International Relations
Edited by Simon Curtis
3 Global Cities and Climate Change
The Translocal Relations of Environmental Governance
Taedong Lee
4 The Urban Climate Challenge
Rethinking the Role of Cities in the Global Climate Regime
Edited by Craig Johnson, Noah Toly, and Heike Schroeder
5 The Global City 2.0
From Strategic Site to Global Actor
Kristin Ljungkvist
First published 2016
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2016 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kristin Ljungkvist to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ljungkvist, Kristin.
The global city 2.0 : from strategic site to global actor / Kristin Ljungkvist.
pages cm. (Cities and global governance ; v. 5)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. UrbanizationPolitical aspects. 2. UrbanizationEconomic
aspects. 3. Municipal government. 4. GlobalizationPolitical
aspects. 5. GlobalizationEconomic aspects. 6. Urbanization
New York (State)New York. 7. New York (N.Y.)Politics and
government21st century. I. Title.
HT361.L63 2016
307.76dc23
2015009265
ISBN: 978-1-138-90914-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-69414-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC