Sociologist Saskia Sassen explored how advanced service firms concentrated their executive offices in New York, London and Tokyo from the 1980s onwards – giving these cities a heavier weight in the global economy. Research has since explored further the growth of London’s global city functions, focusing first on the role played by corporations.
British urbanist Peter Hall characterised London in the 1960s as one of the few ‘world cities’, with growing dominance over trade, information handling and innovation – despite the unravelling of the British Empire and government attempts to rebalance the economy away from the capital. London was characterised as a global city even as it was going through a period of economic and population decline after World War II. London’s population has long reflected the city’s international character, and was augmented by waves of political and economic refugees – by 1901 around five per cent of the population was born overseas. London’s influence today draws on the city’s longstanding status as a centre of international power, first as a trading centre then as an imperial capital. This chapter reviews the characteristics and components of London’s global reach – enabling the city to draw in companies, and migrants rich and poor – and how these global functions impact on London. Research on the phenomenon of ‘global cities’ has consistently placed London in their front rank. London’s pre-eminence in the world economy is matched only by a handful of cities.
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