New York, Calcutta, Budapest – Of “world cities” and the whole
January 7, 2011
“The other point about globalization is precisely that all cities do not become completely similar to one another; some of their elements do converge but others diverge, sometimes wildly, which is why urbanism exhibits more diversity than ever, creating intricately linked, very complex systems. Analyses of “global” or “world cities” cannot aim to represent the
whole. The metaphor of the dual city certainly captures the selective transnationalization of cultures. The “third-worlding” experience of New York is, however, still quite different from life in Calcutta, and the “Brazilianization” of British cities cannot be assumed to be the master pattern for Rio or for the “Balkanization” of Budapest.”
Judit Bodnar, Fin de millénaire Budapest :metamorphoses of urban life (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001), 5
