Entering the Third Tier: A Tour Through Decay and Disadvantage

Abstract

All cities share many characteristics: a transportation network, pollution and commercial hubs. Differences are instigated through immigration, size of population, geographical specificities, weather and economic policies. As shown in the introduction to this book, one strategy to organize cities for both research and policy development is to position them into tiers, based on size, influence, branding and impact. Global cities are the spine of the international economy, with a huge multicultural population, housing the international headquarters of corporations and diverse modes of production and consumption. Such global cities can be listed with ease: New York, Toronto, Mumbai, Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Moscow, Sydney, Auckland, Tokyo and Cairo. They have much in common. This similarity is matched by an intense connectivity and mobility. The point of globalization is that it renders global cities homogenized. Indeed, Saskia Sassen—the key theorist of global cities—argued that they are “de-nationalized”. Global cities are disconnected from national imaginings and form relationships with other global cities. They hold a particular function in the global economy. After September 11, global cities like New York and London became places of fear, confusion and terrorism, with a targeting of transportation networks. The premise of such an argument is that New York has more in common with Toronto and London than New Orleans or Las Vegas. Non-global cities, not surprisingly, describe all the other cities that are not global cities. The most researched cities in this category are situated on the second tier. They are sites of difference, including divergent popular culture, tourism, industries and economic development. These cities, like Vancouver, Brighton, Wellington, Perth, Osaka, Dunedin and Dusseldorf, are very different from each other. While the second-tier cities have both economic and social potential, third-tier cities are not only neglected in the research literature, but are lacking infrastructural and policy support. These cities require the most intervention.