The new generation of global and world city research has expanded the range of cities and the kinds of firms and economic circuits explored, with interesting insights for global urban studies. I raise a few issues for debate: why synechdoche continues to be invoked; why power hierarchies are still proposed, in the face of a more network-oriented form of power; and where alternatives to the powerful (and usually negative) real-world political effects of the ‘global city’ term might come from?
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