In her pioneering book "The Global City," Saskia Sassen argued that certain cities in the postindustrial world have become central nodes in the new service economy, strategic sites for the acceleration of capital and information flows as well as spaces of increasing socio-economic polarization. One effect has been that such cities have gained in importance and power relative to nation-states.
In this new collection of essays, Sassen and a distinguished group of contributors expand on the author's earlier work in a number of important ways, focusing on two key issues. First, they look at how information flows have bound global cities together in networks, creating a global city web whose constituent cities become "global" through the networks they participate in. Second, they investigate emerging global cities in the developing world-Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Beirut, the Dubai-Iran corridor, and Buenos Aires. They show how these globalizing zones are not only replicating many features of the top tier of global cities, but are also generating new socio-economic patterns as well. These new patterns of development promise to lead to significant changes in the structure of the global economy, as more and more cities worldwide are integrated into globalization's circuitry.
Includes contributions from: Linda Garcia, Patrice Riemens, Geert Lovink, Peter Taylor, David Smith, Michael Timberlake, Stephen Graham, Sueli Schiffer Ramos, Christoff Parnreiter, Felicity Gu, David Meyer, Pablo Ciccolella, Iliana Mignaqui, Eric Huybrechts, Ali Parsa. Also includes six maps.

Introduction: Locating Cities on Global Circuits, Saskia Sassen Part I: The Urban Architecture of Global Networks 1. The Architecture of Global Networking Technologies, D. Linda García 2. Communication Grids: Cities and Infrastructure, Stephen Graham 3. Firms and Their Global Service Networks, Peter J. Taylor, D. R. F. Walker, and J. V. Beaverstock 4. Hierarchies of Dominance among World Cities: A Network Approach, David Smith and Michael Timberlake Part II: Cross-Border Regions 5. Mexico: The Making of a Global City, Christof Parnreiter 6. The Hormuz Corridor: Building a Cross-Border Region between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, Ali Parsa and Ramin Keivani 7. São Paulo: Articulating a Cross-Border Region, Sueli Ramos Schiffer 8. Beirut: Rebuilding Regional Circuits, Eric Huybrechts Part III. Network Nodes 9. Hong Kong: Global Capital Exchange, David R. Meyer 10. Shanghai: Reconnecting to the Global Economy, Felicity Rose Gu and Zilai Tang 11. Buenos Aires: Sociospatial Impacts of the Development of Global City Functions, Pablo Ciccolella and Iliana Mignaqui 12. Local Networks: Digital City Amsterdam, Patrick Riemens and Geert Lovink

Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, is a leading expert on cities and globalizaiton. She has published numerous books, including The GlobalCity (1991, 2000) Cities in a World Economy (1994), Globalization and its Discontents (1998), Losing Control? (1996), Guests and Aliens (1999), and The Mobility ofLabor and Capital (1988).