Cities In The Global Economy

Question 1

Assembly line of the ford motor company

Answer 1

Innovation

Question 2

Fordism

Answer 2

Mass production of standardized goods

Horizontal integration: manufacturing process occurs in the same location and controlled by the same company

Higher wages and government assistance help simulate consumerism, driving demand in the economy

Strong institutional partnerships between companies, banks, the government and unions

Employment is formal and long term

Type of mass industrial production characterized by mechanized production of goods by a large work force

Question 3

Flexism

Answer 3

Production be ones more mobile, moving to the cheapest locations

Vertical disintegration: outsource most of their operations to smaller firms in multiple locations

Mass production - “small batch manufacturing… And just in time delivery systems that eliminate the need for inventory storage

Rate of unionization declines

Employment becomes more precarious and informal (low wages, working multiple jobs, no pension)

Industrial system characterized by small batch manufacturing runs, high tech production, just in time product delivery, and decentralized corporate organization

Question 4

Global city/ world city/ alpha cry

Answer 4

Command centre for the global economy need increasingly sophisticated administrative structures go maintain the global economy

Question 5

Saskatoon sassen: the global city model

Answer 5

1. The more dispersed a firms operations across different countries, the more complex and strategic its central administrative functions
2. Firms increasingly outsource their central functions to specialized firms
3. These firms are subject to agglomeration economies - gain advantage by locating next to each other and forming an extremely intense and dense info loop
4. Corporate head quarters outsource their functions to these specialized firms, the head quarters themselves do not need to locate within the global city (head quarters can be anywhere)

Question 6

Saskia sassen: the global city model continued (5,6,7)

Answer 6

6. Specialized firms connect their home cities to cities across the globe, the economic fate of the city becomes increasingly dependent on global intercity networks and less on regional or national hinterlands
7. Firms employ high level professionals who have specialized skills and are paid well, meanwhile jobs and wages for medium and low skilled workers are in decline = increase in equality
8. Other services that cannot compete with the most profitable firms for resources are pressured into become informal (janitor)