How Globalized are Cities in the Developing World?

Asking ‘how globalized’ a city is quite a loaded question; to determine or quantify the degree of globalization within a city is quite a arduous task. Globalization isn’t measurable in neat increments; it isn’t a static characteristic nor does it comprise static components. Diverse cities possess different degrees of globalization, and the attempt to quantify these levels seems highly problematic. This situation additionally becomes even more tricky when we consider the word globalization- not only is it quite difficult to measure, but furthermore, what is it we are measuring? There are a wealth of diverse explanations, definitions and assessments of globalization as different theorists aim to provide their conceptualizations of the varied ways in which a city can become globalized. Some theorists emphasise the economic, while others stress the cultural and still others gage globalization geographically or according to the level of international interconnectedness with the western world.

[...] Furthermore, in Appadurai’s analysis of cultural globalization, he takes the breakdown a step further. Appadurai distinguishes five strands of global "scapes," that cross across cultural boundaries: ethnoscapes, the landscape of persons who constitute the shifting world in which people live, technoscapes, the global configuration of technologies moving at high speeds across previously impermeable borders, financescapes, the global grid of currency speculation and capital transfer, mediascapes, the distribution of the capabilities to produce and disseminate information and the large complex repertoire of images and narratives generated by these capabilities, ideoscapes, ideologies of states and counter- ideologies of movements, around which nation-states have organized their political cultures. [...]

[...] The world’s most ‘globalized’ cities could be viewed as the ones in which the economies are thriving with the capitalist system at work and their level of interconnectedness and integration within the world economy is high. However, these aforementioned cities wield great power and are vital markets, but do not afford their inhabitants the most basic resources. These global cities, the most globalized cities that is, are central hubs to global economic markets but allow for marginalized residents who lack basic urban liveability. [...]

[...] “Hybrids of Western and Indian cultural types are routine, and it appears that on some level localization is essential for success in the Indian market.” (Scholte, 92) Through the integration of Western and Indian culture, a hybrid model emerges which is more readily accepted. One example of this hybrid model can be seen in the dispersion and popularity of martial arts through the medium of film and television. The spread of martial arts a rich illustration of the ways in which the long-standing martial arts traditions (has been) reformulated to meet the fantasies of contemporary youth populations (and) create new cultures (Appadurai, 305) For tangible examples of this, we can look at the prominence of American martial arts films, which integrate Western scripts with Asian martial practices and performances, to construct an American-Asian hybrid. [...]