Global Cities and Urban Theory examines how cities are shaped by globalization and how urban theory has evolved to explain these changes. Donald McNeill explores the development of the “global city” concept and evaluates key theoretical approaches used to understand the role of cities in the global economy.

The book is part of the Sage Urban Studies series and serves as an accessible introduction to major debates in urban geography and globalization.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-177) and index.

Machine generated contents note: Bright lights, global cities -- Cultural and political economies -- Material turns -- The organization of the book -- 1. Centrality -- Caput Mundi: capital of the world -- The `original globalizer'? Cities and territorialized religion -- The cathedral and the global city -- Theological centrality -- Popemobile: universality and visibility -- Creative globalization? Pilgrimage practices -- The Bible and the global South -- 2. Flat Cities -- Actor-networks and political economies -- A Paris journey; or, the problem of the `zoom' -- How big is the city? -- World's Fairs -- Centre of calculation -- The objects that hold Paris together -- Small Paris: recomposition -- A rumour of cities -- 3. Global Urban Order(Ing) -- Metageographies -- Global rankings -- The `ordinary city' debates -- Ontologies of big cities -- Standard cities -- Global standards I: hotels -- Global standards II: air conditioning -- 4. Logistical Territories -- Circumferential and surface geographies -- Logistical territories -- Port ontologies -- A ship-centric ontology of the urban? -- Airport territories -- The production of Hong Kong International Airport -- 5. Centres of Calculation -- CBD: the central business district as a `centre of calculation' -- Office geographies -- Bodies and work -- Saskia Sassen's financial centres -- Metrologies of centrality: critical accounting -- Calculable city space -- Global cities and the `super-rich' -- Moral geographies -- Forensic urban geography -- 6. World-Making -- Models, experts and consultants -- Actualization -- The selling of the Silicon Valley model -- Management consultancy as worlding practice -- Co-presence and business travel -- Gurus and urbanologists -- San Francisco and the global expansion of Uber -- Testbeds and experimentation -- Urban laboratories: New Songdo and Masdar City -- CONCLUSIONS -- Distance and panorama -- Global cities are miscellaneous concentrations of firms -- Calculated territories -- Power and cities -- Ethnographic sensitivities.