Abstract
This paper addresses a neglected dimension of global cities research: how the idea of economic concentration, its surplus and consequent global influence can be applied to the art world. The research presented here relates to Tokyo as a well‐known example of a global city, advancing existing understandings of Tokyo from the neglected perspective of the arts. Based on qualitative and quantitative research by the author, including cultural and spatial mapping, interviews, ethnographic observations and visual documents, the findings confirm that the role of space and materiality is overlooked in global cities research. The results demonstrate the active contribution and intervention of spatial patterns in the formation of artistic activities. A number of Tokyo's spatial features have an inhibiting effect that shifts artistic activities underground, creating asymmetries in the constitution of symbolic meanings in the city and a failure to openly stimulate artistic practices. As a consequence, Tokyo's vivid art world remains invisible not only to outsiders but to Tokyo itself.
Highlights
Global Art CitiesA rising number of studies address the role of global art cities, both in the process of globalisation and within the global art world
The majority of these studies focus on Western Europe and North America; typical examples include cities such as Paris, Berlin, London, and New York, and any more wide-ranging research tends to rely on data from Western sources
This paper opened with the observation that research on global art cities has not meaningfully addressed non-Western examples and has tended to focus on global economic or financial cities
Summary
Global city research has sought to explain Tokyo’s global economic success by theorising the city within this framework To address these questions, the paper’s first three subsections revisit some key concepts in the global city literature. Required to make a city “global” are missing in Tokyo as a global art city To resolve this paradox, the narrative takes a short detour to revisit the notion of economic concentration and production, introducing a more spatial emphasis. The narrative takes a short detour to revisit the notion of economic concentration and production, introducing a more spatial emphasis Based on this revised framework, the paper confirms the role of space and urban materiality in influencing and intervening in artistic activities and their productive potential and international visibility
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