The World System of Cities: Relations between International Financial Metropolises and South American Cities

Abstract

An ecological conceptualization of the world system of cities is proposed based both on an extension of the ecological rationale for a national system of cities and on insights from world-system theory and research. The core concepts are divided into five categories: (1) the key function, (2) hierarchy and dominance—the vertical dimension, (3) specialization—the horizontal dimension, (4) interaction, and (5) dynamics. As a test of selected ideas, the dominance of core international financial metropolises over peripheral South American cities is examined; the measure is the international bank headquarters—branch office link. The hypotheses of ecological dominance were confirmed. The core metropolises dominate the peripheral metropolises of South America, and within the core the upper level metropolises exert greater dominance than the lower level metropolises. The national metropolises of South America are the key intermediaries with international metropolises, but the former have few links among themselves. The world system of cities based on finance seems to be organized independently of national or world regional boundaries.