London is widely acknowledged as a leading 'world city' but there is little understanding of why some cities succeed in the age of globalisation while others fail. Urbanist Greg Clark tackles this complex issue and more in a new book.
London is widely acknowledged as a leading 'world city' but there is little understanding of why some cities succeed in the age of globalisation while others fail. Urbanist Greg Clark tackles this complex issue and more in a new book.
The Making of a World City: London 1991 - 2021, published by Wiley Blackwell in December 2014, looks at what the UK capital has done right over the last 25 years, and the steps the city will have to take in the coming years to maintain its pre-eminent position amid globalisation.
Clark's work puts London under the microscope but he says it has a wider relevance. 'The age of globalisation is also an age of globalising cities but the science of cities is only slowly emerging; there is limited understanding of how and why some cities succeed and others fail.'
Clark notes that the success of the 2012 Olympic Games marked a 'high watermark at the end of two decades of evolution and transformation in which London had become one of the most open and cosmopolitan cities in the world, while increasing its influence and soft power in the global systems of trade, capital, culture, knowledge, and communications.'
London, he says, holds a fascination for other world cities because it appears to be always slightly ahead of the curve, highly adaptable, and almost accidentally successful. What can other cities learn from London? Is London really a success? Or are there problems in store? Can London fix its own problems or is something more required?
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