The metropolis beyond the nation: globalization and urban crisis

Abstract

The aim of this article - more precisely, an essay - is to reflect on the role of large cities and metropolises in a global economy, emphasizing the contradiction between concentration of wealth and increasing unemployment in these urban agglomerations. We focus on the significance of the emerging global cities, whose level of cross-border social and economic integration, which surpasses traditional scales, means an implosion of the domestic economy. We highlight that the characteristics of current metropolises have to be viewed as part of a global urban crisis.