This document summarizes information about the concentration of global economic power. It finds that power is concentrated in transnational corporations based mostly in North America and Europe. It also finds that the world's richest people and most influential global cities are predominantly located in these regions as well, suggesting economic power remains unevenly distributed globally, concentrated in Western nations.

1. This will take you through a series of activities which will:
1.Help you understand where the power in the global economy is
concentrated and why.
2.Develop your research skills
3.Help you to work through a series of IT skills with support , at your
own pace.
4.You must ask for help if you’re stuck, you are not expected to know it
all, you’re here to learn!

2. Firstly open a word document
 Open up a word document and give it a
heading:
Global economic power

3. Transnational Corporations (TNCs) –
company power
 In your word document put a sub-heading Transnational Corporations.
Transnational corporations are businesses which operate at a global scale. They
are organised globally and owned by shareholders from around the world. Because
of their complex operations it is very difficult to say where their product is “made”.
Within a company there will be common management and working practices and
communications systems (e.g. IT). The global economy is dominated by
transnational corporations. They are the drivers of globalisation.
 In your word document explain what Transnational Corporations are.
 Forbes.com collect data about the top 2000 public companies. They identify where
their home country is. http://www.forbes.com/global2000/#p_1_s_a0_All
%20industries_Australia_All%20states_
 You can click on the drop down menu to get a list of the largest companies in
different countries.

4.  Make a table in your document:
Country Number of top 200 companies Largest company
 Choose one country from each continent, use the pull down menu to find out
how many companies in the top 200 are based there and what the largest
TNC is. Fill in the table:
 North America,
 South America,
 Europe,
 Africa,
 Asia,
 Oceania.
Answer two questions:
 Not all countries appear in the drop down list. Why is this?
 Does this data suggest the power of TNCs is evenly spread around the
globe?

5. Rich people
 Add a new heading to your document The world’s richest people
 Forbes collects information about the world’s billionaires.
http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/
 People with large fortunes are very important players in the global economy, they
have vast amounts of money to invest and economists watch what they do to try to
work out how to make more money themselves. Because they have made a fortune,
they are seen as good people to follow.
 In your document answer the following question: Why is the distribution of rich
people a good indicator of global power
 Now go down the list of the richest 100 and tally how many are from each continent
and how many are women:
 North America,
 South America,
 Europe,
 Africa,
 Asia,
 Oceania.

6.  Draw a simple bar chart showing the distribution of the 100 richest
people.
 Describe and explain the pattern
 Add a table to identify the 10 richest people and how they made their
fortune using Forbes:
Rank Name Source of wealth
1 Mr Rich ????

7. World Cities
 A world city is important in the global economic system. Globalisation
is created and managed in the most important cities for finance and
trade. The most complex cities have a big impact on global business,
they influence the flows of money and goods between countries.
 In your word document put a heading World Cities , in your own
words explain what a world city is.
 Being a world city is beneficial to development, and geographers rank
cities according to their global influence. Get the ranking from the
Globalization and World Cities Study Group (GAWC) based at
Loughborough University
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/world2010t.html

8.  Use the GAWC website . Draw a table in your word document and identify where the
Alpha world cities are
Continent Number of Top World Cities
(alpha cities)
North America
South America
Europe
Africa
Asia
Oceania
 If World Cities are important for global economic power, what does this pattern tell us
about the distribution of power? Answer the question in your document.