Global city is a concept used by Castells as a theoretical concept of interconnected localities in many different cities around the world. This concept can be helpful in visualising how globalization is not affecting all localities equally as expressed by Massey. Castells, however, use this conceptual tool to specify how networks transcends locality. He argues that networks have become such a central component to contemporary society that there is a need for a concise theoretical framework concerning network society in order to effectively produce beneficial research. (Castells, 2000, pp. 94-97)
One potential issue that this framework could be useful for is related to resilience and reliance. As the connection between places is increasingly intensified so is the reliance on other localities. The increased optimization of production and separation of work tasks dispersed to various spaces in the world is detrimental to the self-sufficiency of areas. If one point in the network fails other points will suffer as well and as a worst-case scenario multiple points in the network will stop producing products essential to the network. The economic crash in 2008 is a recent example of how struggling nodes in a network can have immense effects on the complete network.
Another issue intensified by network society is the fading sovereignty of nation-states and the increased freedom for companies due to improved mobility of economy. A recent example of the opaque veil networks create is the scandal from 2013 where there was found horse meat in what was supposed to be beef. When there is a segregation spatially between production and consumption it becomes increasingly difficult for nation-states to effectively supervise the production especially when production goes through multiples nodes in a network. Ulrich Beck also criticizes how companies can easily move production to nation-states that are lenient on taxes, workers’ rights and environmental rights essentially creating a race to the bottom for struggling nation-states. (Beck, 2009)
Bibliography
Beck, Ulrich. (2009). World at Risk. Cambridge: Polity Press
Castells, Manuel, 2000. Toward a Sociology of the Network Society. Contemporary Sociology, vol. 29, episode 5, pp. 693-699.
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