Powerpoint for European section pupils

1. LONDON CALLING

2. LONDON : A Global City
"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of
London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson
LESSON PLAN
London : Facts and Figures
Global Cities : Methods and
Criteria
London's assets
Problems and Challenges

3. LONDON: Facts and Figures
Make Up:
The Inner City and 32 Boroughs governed by the GLA with an elected Mayor
since 2000
Size:
roughly 1500km2
Population:
somewhere between 8 and 9 million inhabitants
Density:
5200 inhabitants / km2
Ethnic Groups:
Over 300 languages spoken and 14 different religions
The City:
300 000 people work in « The Square Mile »
Transport:
22000 taxis 6800 buses 268 Tube stations 5 airports (134M passengers)

4. Global Cities : Methods and Criteria (1)
To be considered a global city, the city must be seen as an important node
(element) in the global economic system which means the system is dependent
upon certain economic locales situated around the globe which interact in trade and
commerce (NYLON – the strong links between the world's two leading global
cities, New York and London)

5. Sakia Sassen is a Dutch
sociologist who works at LSE
and Columbia Universtity.
She wrote her seminal work
on the new phenomenon of
the « global city » in 1992.
As she looked at the changing world and world economic system at
the end of the 1980s, she saw multiple flows all around the globe:
flows of capital, goods, services, information, people … She realised
that at some point, somewhere in the world, all these flows had to
come together in a physical environment. As she looked at the map of
the world she noticed that these places were all cities which shared
common features … cities she would call « global cities » and which
play an essential role in the new globalised economic system.
See
https://www.mysweetimmo.com/2019/02/19/les-global-cities-
daujourdhui-nont-rien-a-voir-avec-les-villes-monde-dhier-saskia-
sassen-sociologue/
For an interview IN FRENCH!!! with Saskia Sassen

6. The Global City Index criteria (2)
The GCI criteria for a Global City are …
Business Activity: Headquarters of major MNCs; capital markets; flow of
goods through ports and airports; international conferences
Information Exchange: access to major news channels; access to
internet; international news bureaus; level of censorship
Political Engagement: number of embassies; seat of national
government; political conferences; international organizations
Human Capital: attraction for talent-based workers; number of foreign
born population; quality universities; international students and schools;
number of residents with university degrees
Cultural Experience: sporting events; museums; theatres; restaurants;
tourists

7. Finance and Business Activity
On a negative note, BREXIT had led to companies leaving the capital and setting up office in
Europe. It is estimated that over 140 companies have left the country and London has lost
7400 finance jobs to Paris and Frankfurt.

8. Human Capital and Information Exchange

9. Political Engagement
Cultural Experience

11. The London Olympic Games 2012
Hosting the Olympic Games is a costly exercise so we may wonder why cities want so much to be chosen. It
comes down to a matter of reputation since it shows the city’s economic and culutral clout on the world stage .
In 2004, when London was chosen for the 2012 Olympig Games, the defeated Paris delegation was extremely
upset. Four years later as the subprime economic crisis began to effect the rest of the world, Bertrand Delanoe,
mayor of Paris, expressed relief at not having to host the games given the cost.
Indeed, the final cost of hosting the Games in London is estimated at $10.4B … a colossal sum. Yet the Games
were a success both as a sporting event and as an attempt to profit from new infracture once the Olympic flame
had gone out.
The Games were not set in the more affluent west of London. The site chosen was an old working-class post-
industrial part of the city in the east – Stratford (cf. map)
The Games showed the world that London was well capable of assuming the huge task of investment,
organisation and building. They also showed how important foresight is when planning the Games.
The now renamed Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park is a vibrant quarter of the city with new housing (the
athletes’ apartments), sporting facilities (West Ham FC) and cultural scene.
The Games allowed the city to renovate or regenerate an old part of the city at a time when space was getting
rare in the west. It also created the context to extend rail and tube links to the east of the city.
Stratford is now a fashionable place to be, linked to the rest of the city by public transport … and only a stone’s
throw from London’s second financial platform, Canary Wharf.
Good thinking!