Cities in transition : globalization, political change and urban development

This book was written with the aim of showing that even in the era of globalization developments appearing in cities are not subject to almost unconditional global forces. Rather, universal forces are decisive eventualities in the process of urban restructuring, often influencing its course and speed, yet developments and particularities within a city strongly influence the course of events and the extent to which negative characteristics of globalization might occur. Berlin, Brussels, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sarajevo and Vienna: Using these important cities the special relationship between global and local/regional forces is analyzed. The case studies were selected based on their political and cultural context and the fact that their social and political fabric was subject to major changes in the recent past. How global processes manifest themselves locally depends to a great extent on how development processes and endogenic potentials are initiated locally in order to cope with the new global economic and societal conditions. From the contents: Theoretical framework.- Global and local forces in cities undergoing political change.- Geographical contexts.- Berlin: Coping with the past - looking ahead.- The political geography of an eternal city: Ethno-territorial fragmentation in a "united" Jerusalem.- Power transferred. Hong Kong: China's global city.- Sarajevo: Isolation in a country falling apart. Ideology collapsed.- Moscow: Capital of a decimated world power.- St. Petersburg: Kiosks as mediators of the new market economy.- Johannesburg: Life after Apartheid. Horizons expanded.- New perspectives for Vienna: Repositioning between East and West.- Brussels: Pseudo-capital of Europe. Perspectives of Belgium's global city in-the-making.- Development handicapped.- Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City: The long struggle of two cities / Recovering from endless war.- Synopsis.- Global change and local reality.- The authors.