The birth of a world city

Abstract

World cities are starting points for the organization of markets, sites for the concentration of international capital, and the destination of many migrants. As control and command centers, they house big multinational headquarters, including finance, transport, services and communications. A linchpin between North and South America, Miami has a stable political economy. Like Hong Kong, it developed through the arrival of foreign migrants and capital, which has led to a hybrid identity, a “transcultural capitalism.” Like Dublin, Miami’s growth was founded on foreign investment but without the same degree of public intervention. Connected to the world’s business flows, including the cultural industries, Miami remains unusual due to the lack of regional embeddedness of its world city functions.