ch. 1. Urbanization and the construction of the global urban ecosystem -- The trends : a new political economy of globalization in teh developing world -- What is a city? The case for a global urban ecosystem -- Globalization is urbanization : revisiting the global city -- Identifying the pitch : framing global urbanization in the this book -- ch. 2. Urban histories : arriving at the global urban ecosystem -- A natural history of the city -- Urban sedimentation : the layered and repurposed city -- On the edge of a global urban ecology -- ch. 3. Saigon's "do-your-timers" : rural transformation and the urban transition in Saigon -- The second green revolution : global trade and agro=industrialization -- From rice bowl to fast food : Saigon, the Mekong Delta, and the urban transition -- Migrants to the new city : local dreams with a global reach -- "Real" estate and imagine assets : the post-2000 boom in construction -- ch. 4. "Do-your-timers" African style : Addis Ababa, the unlikely capital of Africa -- African demand and Chinese supply : African supply and Chinese demand -- Ethiopia : African sovereignty in a global world -- Politicizing and connecting in Addis : the African Union and Bole Airport -- Doing their time : urbanization without development -- Grassroots globalization in urban practice -- The high cost of living among the poor -- ch. 5. The indigenous city? Reconciling an old-timers' Honolulu with a global society -- Globalization of the tropical vacation and the grey revolution : top-notch services at rock-bottom prices in beautiful locations -- The old-timers : grey revolution sunbirds, new communalists, and the unfulfilled aspiration of an island utopia -- The problem with growth : elevated rail, solid waste, and the backbone of a global cit -- Constructing the good old days : APEC, the Ahupua'a, and Kaka'ako -- ch. 6. "For-all-timers" : New York City's empire state of mind -- Urban resilience : repurposing both people and places -- 9/11, Wall Street collapse, and the softening of hte big city? -- The city and the great recession -- Immortality through reinvention -- ch. 7. The global urban ecosystem : a globally integrated ecology of everyday life -- The global city revisited : are we all global cities now? -- The alternative pitch : vertically integrated urbanization -- Building blocks of the global urban ecosystem -- The building blocks of the c ity -- Do your timers, old-timers, and for all timers revisited -- Global urban governance : science and poetry.
Summary:
Overview: During the past decade, the world reached the point of becoming more urban than not, as the majority of people on the planet now live not in small towns or villages but in provincial, national, and global cities. Scholars have long been fascinated by so-called global cities, world cities, and the urban engines of the global economy. James H. Spencer argues, however, that such an emphasis misses the central fact that urbanization goes well beyond the usual suspects of New York, Tokyo, London, and Shanghai. The author charts urbanization across the Global South and North, resulting in what he describes as a planetary global urban ecosystem. This concept that challenges us to realize that in daily life, their similar physical and social ecosystems that make cities more understandable to each other than to their own rural hinterlands. Spencer's vivid case studies of Addis Ababa, Ho Chi Minh City, Honolulu, and New York draw out the commonalities of our intertwined built and social environments and how they express a shared humanity across continents and cultures.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.