In How to Build a Global City, Michele Acuto considers the rise of a new generation of "global cities," Singapore, Sydney and Dubai, and the power that this idea had in their ascent, in order to analyze the general relationship between global city theory and its urban public policy practice. The global city is often invoked in theory and practice as an ideal model of development and a logic of internationalization for other cities the world over. But the global city also creates deep social polarization and challenges to how much local planning can achieve in a world economy. Presenting a unique elite ethnography in Singapore, Sydney, and Dubai, Acuto discusses the global urban discourses, aspirations, and strategies vital to the planning and management of such metropolitan growth. The global city, he shows, is not just one single idea, but a complex of ways to imagine a place to be global, and aspirations to make it so, often deeply steeped into politics. The result is a call to reconcile proponents and critics of the global city, toward a more explicit engagement the politics of this global urban imagination.

Book Information
ISBN 9781501759703
Author Michele Acuto
Format Hardback
Page Count 258
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 152g