Now that a rising number of global cities have populations greater than a number of European countries have, the BBC asks whether the nation state is under threat from the rise of the super-city.
Economically, many of the world’s great cities are already divorced from their nation-states, with their main streams of investment come from other great cities.
“The most important place to London is New York and to New York is London and Tokyo,” [Sociologist Professor] Sennett says. “London belongs to a country composed of itself and New York.”
Last week, London’s mayor, Ken Livingstone reacted to new powers granted to him with a joke, “Having been to Singapore and seen how successful it was I think anything short of a fully independent city state is a lost opportunity, with its own foreign and defence policies thrown in.”
[via Archinect]
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I think that city-states are going to be the inevitable future. The smaller the world becomes because of the ease of travel the more important the cities.
July 17th, 2006 at 10:57 am