20 Mark Essay for AQA A level human geography discussing the question - Outline the role/ characteristic of World cities and discuss how these differ from megacities? I achieved an A* in this essay and is an example essay that could be in the Contemporary Urban Environments section of the AQA human...
Outline the role / characteristic of World cities and
discuss how these differ from megacities? - 20 Marks
Looking at world cities and megacities, the major difference between them both is
within a mega city they are metropolitan areas with a total population in excess of 10
million people however, the reach of global cities is global and they have become the
command and control centres of the international economies. They dominate the global
urban hierarchy and unlike mega cities are mainly located in the developed world. They
are leading business centres especially for TNC’s and specialise in producer services
such as finance, banking, accounting, management, consultancy, law and advertising.
With megacities, there are different types such as immature, consolidating, maturing
and established. Immature megacities and growing rapidly in an uncontrolled way such
as Lagos in Nigeria, and a consolidating megacity has slower growth such as Mumbai in
India. A maturing megacity has a more developed formal economy with large service
based industries and established megacities have stable and effective governance and
often take part in regeneration projects such as London.
There are certain factors that have encouraged large scale urban agglomeration for the
causes of mega cities. Cumulative causation is capitalising on some initial advantage, the
city becomes more successful and the multiplier effect happens. Population growth is
the basic input and it causes high rates of natural increase and positive net migration
and additionally, the mass gravity effect is the momentum that causes large objects to
become even larger. Development leads to economic growth and advances in transport
as it scales up urban growth and status-symbol syndrome which is the best ‘buzz’ felt by
people and businesses by being part of a large city.
On the other hand, with world cities globalisation and informationalisation lead to a
shift of manufacturing from its traditional centres in MEDC’s whereas at the same time,
services become increasingly concentrated into a few trading cities. The ease of
communication such as the internet, telephone systems, electronic data transfer, the
advancement in transportation systems and English as the business language attracts
more companies and increases in importance. Since, there are resource centres that are
networks of knowledge that companies can access to grow. This knowledge can be
codified over the internet and accessible anywhere or tacit needs discussion and face to
face contact. Companies can get this from spatial proximity to other companies,
educational institutions and policy makers. Ultimately these are all present in world
cities at the same time and the spark for new ideas in provided.
Looking at the role of world cities they have high levels of synergy which is where 2 or
more companies, groups or individuals achieve mutual benefits by working together.
They have low value activities such as manufacturing and distribution and there is a
polarised work force where there is jobs that demand a high level of education at the
top and training and personal skills and high rewards. There is however a large number
of Eastern European migrants in low paid jobs where there is few career prospects.
World cities also have economic, cultural, political and infrastructure roles. London is an
established world city and has one of the worlds most globalised economies and is the
Worlds largest financial centre. With 264 factories worldwide it also controls 400
brands globally. It is home to 4 international aiports inculuding Heathrow which is the
third busiest airport in the world. There are extensive and mass transport systems such
as the London underground and additionally there are advanced communication
infrastructure with fibre-optics idea for quick communication. It has also had a large
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