DPU Working Paper - No. 135

Author: Marie Rouan

Publication Date: 2009

For the past three decades, globalisation has transformed cities in many ways. As economic production systems, financial and information flows largely ignore boundaries and make the scale of the nation-state less and less relevant, cities have become even more crucial centres of wealth creation. On the one hand, they attract and/or seek to attract private investors. On the other hand, they also attract migrants in search of livelihood opportunities. These  "outsiders" challenge cities as political and social communities. Both these aspects of globalisation question previous conceptions of who belongs to the city and of who the city belongs to.  

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