Globalization appears to have a home, and that is the new "global cities" emerging worldwide to host and drive it. Global or world cities are the place where the local meets the global, and they are crucial actors and points of contact for the new networks of the 21st century. These global cities share several key cultural, social, economic, and political features that serve to differentiate them from other large cities. .
Throughout history, cities served as the centers of civilizations, moving humans away from a primitive existence (Gunn 3/12/07). In certain cities, wider circuits of production, trade, and culture were organized. The first of these mini-world-systems was constructed around the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates, and the Indus Rivers (Abu-Lughod 401). Cities continued to grow and spring up around the world. Although the "Black Death" momentarily slowed this process, the Age of Discovery and the colonialism that followed allowed cities to expand, rapidly encompassing the New World and parts of the South Pacific and southern Africa. According to Abu-Lughod, the fact that cities lie at the center of complex networks constitutes their essential feature (399). Urbanization was both a symptom and a consequence of their creation. Cities seemed to contain a lure of a better life without poverty or simply more excitement, resulting in masses flocking to their centers (Gunn 3/7/02).
Simply because a city is large, however, does not constitute it as global. One of the key features of a global city involves its cultural aspects. The process of global awareness results in an intermingling and even "hybridization" of cultural patterns (Abu-Lughod 399). Due to the lure of a better life that cities inherently possess, they tend to draw large amounts of immigration. Diverse diasporic groups of people flock to major cities all over the globe in search of jobs and possibilities of a better life.