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About the UNPLUGGED Updates

In a Cyberworld, Cities of Brick and Mortar Remain the Centers of Power

Information and communication are available worldwide. Yet, a small number of global cities plays an ever growing role as centers of influence and have an ever greater impact on decisions and events worldwide. This is not only true for the conventional means to exercise power, notably money and political institutions. It also applies to culture and media that form clusters which are located at largely the same global nodes.

An update by Rüdiger Wischenbart

'The cultural economy is a prime mover for globalisation processes in the urban system, in which cultural production clusters act as local nodes in the global networks of the large media groups. (…) The analysis of the world media cities enables those locations to be identified, from which globalisation in the spheres of culture and the media proceeds and is 'produced' in practical terms. (… For) the process of globalisation the globally operating media firms are at least as influential as the global providers of corporate services, because they create a cultural market of global dimensions, on the basis of which the specialised global service providers can ensure the practical management of global production and market networks.' (Globalisation and World Cities Study Group and Network)

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