Emerging Urbanity

Discussions on the global economy focus on the hyper-mobility of capital, the possibility of instantaneous transmission of information and money around the globe, the centrality of information outputs to our economic systems and emphasise the neutralisation of geography and of places. What is ignored, however, is that even the most advanced information industries need a material infrastructure of buildings and work processes, and considerable agglomeration, in order to operate in global markets. Further, the globalisation of economic activity has brought with it not only a vast dispersal of offices and factories, but also a growing importance of central functions to manage and coordinate such worldwide networks of activities.