John Connell, ed.. : The Emergence of a World City. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2000. xvi + 381 pp. $59.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-19-550748-5.

Reviewed by Lynette Finch

Published on H-Urban (April, 2002)

Between 1850 and 1914, over ffty million Eu‐ nell, editor of this ffteen-chapter collection, ropeans emigrated to the Americas or Australasia. writes that Sydney has "established its national Throughout the nineteenth and most of the twen‐ dominance as a population centre, and almost tieth century, Melbourne was their preferred Aus‐ certainly as 's global city." tralian destination. Until the last quarter of the Inspired by G. Wynn and T. Oke's twentieth century, it had the largest foreign-born and its Region, the main theme of the collection is percentage of population in the country. By 1850, Sydney's role as a global city. Connell defnes the it was one of a select grouping of globally signif‐ term as "a metropolis that is part of a global con‐ cant megacities. A city of parks and wide streets, sciousness." Robert Fagan, in his chapter on the substantial commercial and public buildings, it industrial evolution of the city, provides a more was a hub of foreign investment capital. Through‐ complex defnition. Global cities are identifed by out the frst half of the twentieth century, Aus‐ their role as: tralia's most southerly mainland city remained "command centres for organising the global the country's leading fnancial capital and frst economy, especially through corporate headquar‐ choice for head ofce location amongst national ters, banks and other fnance industries, and their and transnational corporations with headquar‐ role as nodal points in global information fows. ters in the country. Such cities have been characterised by their open‐ Then, in the 1960s, Australia's leading inter‐ ness to global fows of commodities, money, ideas, national city was suddenly and defnitively over‐ and information. They have become destinations taken by Sydney in all global indicators. In 1998 for both internal and international migration of Sydney's population passed the four million mark, skilled information workers, but also magnets for having added one million in the previous 26 new of global labour migration, especial‐ years. By contrast, Melbourne is not expected to ly from developing countries in Latin America reach four million until around 2015. John Con‐ and the Asia-Pacifc Region. Finally, global cities at H-Net Reviews the end of the 1990s, have become pacesetters fundamental base of the city's status as "Aus‐ and difusion centres for a new culture increas‐ tralia's premier domestic and international tourist ingly connected in cyberspace" (p. 145). destination." They argue that Sydney is benefting Statistics supporting Sydney's claim to global- from what will probably prove to be a passing fad city status are provided by several contributors, amongst the international herd. Ever on the all using indicators of international business in‐ search for new settings, the "tourism industry terest in the city. In the 1960s, the mineral boom constantly stalks the globe in search of novelty ... corporations began to cluster in Sydney and so, That while the relative decline in air transport too, did Japanese trading companies. Sydney be‐ cost had made the industry more global than ever gan to attract emergent international fnance before. Australia in general, and Sydney in partic‐ companies. By the 1984, it had overtaken Mel‐ ular, are relative newcomers in the world bourne as preferred location to established corpo‐ tourism." rate head ofces. Forty-fve of Australia's one hun‐ Robert Freestone's chapter is an outstanding dred largest companies had established their contribution to the collection. Focusing on urban main headquarters in Sydney, to Melbourne's planning, he covers the local factors that histori‐ forty-one (Fagan, 158). By 1990 the city had at‐ cally created Sydney's shape and texture, while tracted four-ffths of foreign bank head ofces in introducing the changing milieu in planning an environment of massive infows of foreign cap‐ wrought by its move to an international city of ital. Sydney is now indisputably Australia's lead‐ consumption and spectacle. He presents a case ing share-trading centre (Daly and Pritchard, 167). that globalisation brings both benefts and disad‐ The chapters that discuss the benefts and dis‐ vantages to local residents: advantages of global integration make this a dis‐ Global city status brings economic rewards, tinctive collection. John Connell, for example, ar‐ but also increases the cost of living, brings into gues that the old mercantile city has sharper relief social and cultural divides between become a generic world city bearing a "non-spe‐ 'haves' and 'have nots,' and sets new challenges cifc" appearance. This might be considered a neg‐ for the planning system in balancing the need for, ative by some, but Hollywood producers fnd this say, efcient transport and communications infra‐ a highly desirable trait. Andrew Mason, producer structure against maintaining residential ameni‐ of The Matrix, for example, commended the city ty" (p. 123). for its anonymity: "It's got a bunch of interesting In their chapter on patterns of morbidity (ill‐ buildings with diferent shapes and there's good ness) or mortality, Kevin McCracken and Peter geography. It's not hard to use it as a non-specifc Curson agree that international pressures have city, assuming you don't show the Opera House" widened between rich and poor, just as (p. 18). they had done in other world cities. This gap, Tourism might be expected to sufer if such a rather than any other aspect of Sydney's global generic reshaping is taking place but, in the chap‐ status, has produced a typical health pattern of a ter on this issue, the authors argue that this is not world city: so. The Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the "an ageing population (despite immigration) spectacular harbour, the beautiful Blue Moun‐ primarily afected by degenerative diseases and tains and the old world charm of the Rocks dis‐ by mental illness, but in a metropolis where both trict are features exploited by the tourist promo‐ intermittent and long-term infectious diseases af‐ tions industries. Interestingly, however, Morgan fect other demographic groups (particular AIDS in Sant and Gordon Waiit argue that they are not the the relative anonymity of cities with specialised

2 H-Net Reviews care services) and where there are signifcant, through all chapters, and the expectation that probably increasing, divisions in health status, each chapter will address some aspects of globali‐ and in access to health care, that refect and ac‐ sation is established by the book's sub-title. It is an centuate other urban divisions" (p. 118). expectation that places some of the authors in a Not all contributors to the collection agree difcult position with their work sitting awkward‐ that globalisation has been the driving force in ly in this collection. Andrew Short's chapter, for Sydney's late twentieth-century development. example, is on the landforms of the region. As al‐ Robert Fagan, for example, argues that national most all of the contributors are geographers, this policy and regional factors dominate planning in chapter was an obvious inclusion, but it does not industrial and suburban infrastructure and that contribute to debate on the central theme. It is in‐ the global city discourse overstates the impor‐ teresting and well written but makes no interna‐ tance of global processes, distracting attention tional comparisons and tells us nothing about from the principal role of domestic forces. Chris whether Sydney's geological base has played or Gibson's and John Connell's well-written, fascinat‐ will play any role in the city's integration into a ing chapter on the city through the lens of paint‐ global network. David Chapman's chapter on cli‐ ing, literature, flm, music, and television, mate and disaster management follows in a logi‐ presents a distinctive, easily recognisable Sydney, cal transition. Chapman has made some compar‐ or rather Sydneys. Gibson and Connell represent a isons with other major international cities, espe‐ city of wildly divergent and distinctive settings, of cially in the discussion offooding, and has diferent urban and suburban realities, a city in strengthened the relevance of the chapter within which the gloss of the tourist brochure sits "along‐ this collection for having done so. side images of crime, drugs, hedonism, and the Jim Kohen's sweep of 30,000 years of Aborigi‐ ever-present suburban 'sprawl'" (p. 292). The arts, nal experience is an excellent overview of indige‐ especially popular literature, glory in each local nous experience capturing some of the paradoxes Sydney, with Newtown, Redfern, or Bondi all be‐ of modern urban life for the original inhabitants, ing presented as recognisably idiosyncratic. Their but its place in this particular collection is ques‐ argument that the arts represent Sydney as a tionable, because the author hasn't taken up any combination of distinctive local villages, could of the opportunities to make global comparisons. have resulted in some interesting comparisons Given that native title legislation is based on inter‐ with Robert Fagan's position, but no links have national law, comparisons with other global cities been made between the two chapters. In fact, no would have been extremely interesting. In its own efort has been made to integrate the chapter into right as a paper on Australian indigenous experi‐ the organising logic of the collection, even though ence, especially within an urban context, it works the editor is one of the authors. well and balances the story of hope amidst de‐ Quite a high percentage of contributors do spair, in a thought-provoking, yet sensitive man‐ not address the issue of globalisation at all. To ner. The section on the Block, an area of Redfern some extent, the editor has explained this by ar‐ seen by many as both a real and symbolic Aborigi‐ guing that the book is not just about globalisation nal place in the centre of the city, is the highlight itself, but seeks to examine "the processes of re‐ of the chapter. As Kohen notes, it was a meeting cent change, and to paint a picture of Sydney at a place for Aborigines coming to the city, and very unique moment in its history ... a metropolis in much the "black capital" of Australia, where a de‐ transition ... a cosmopolitan, global capital." But it fned area of Aboriginal land had been marked is very hard to discern any central theme running out on the ground. Unpaid rent combined with high upkeep costs took a terrible toll on beautiful

3 H-Net Reviews old terrace housing and on their inhabitants. As It is a city where Aboriginal communities and Chi‐ urban prices soared and social problems in the nese, Vietnamese, and African shopping centres Block intensifed, Mick Mundine, Manager of the are harboured within this sometimes quirky and Aboriginal Housing Company (the grass roots in‐ beautiful, sometimes bland and generic, city. It's a digenous organisation which had fought to estab‐ mixed bag--not unlike this collection. Sydney, the lish an Aboriginal housing stock in the city) ar‐ Emergence of a World City is a scholarly and use‐ gued that it had become "a ghetto, a place that ful collection, but it doesn't contain much path- symbolised defeat and 'welfare mentality.'" In the breaking or even new material. It will be useful 1990s, parts of the Block were demolished, and for undergraduates, especially of urban studies, the residents were rehoused in other suburbs. although it would have been more successful if Kohen's chapter also provides illustration of more comprehensive and inclusive bibliographies another faw in this collection. Although the book and a more detailed index had been included. was produced in time to catch an international market created by the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the main target audience will be aca‐ demics and students. Yet, almost all the chapters have inadequate bibliographies, and students will have little guidance on where to go for further de‐ tail. Almost all the authors have disregarded the wealth of material on their topics provided by his‐ torians, especially urban historians. Jim Kohen's sweep of pre- and early-European settlement, for example, has not guided readers to the seminal work of Henry Reynolds. Graeme Aplin's chapter on the historical geography of Sydney concen‐ trates on the present CBD and adjacent inner sub‐ urbs and provides a history of the expansion of the from the 1870s to the 1990s. This historical sweep should have used the plethora of work by urban historians, and Aplin's choice to pay no attention to crucial texts by Paul Ashton and Shirley Fitzgerald, amongst others, diminish‐ es the authority of his chapter and its use for stu‐ dents. Overall, the Sydney that emerges from this collection is a modern city, divided between CBD and suburbs, shifting its geographical centre west- wards, merging into a consumption rather than industrial economy, growing in signifcance as a centre of international capital, moving from its nineteenth century genetic base drawn primarily from the British Isles to a multicultural ethnically diverse centre, harbouring suburbs of diference.

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Citation: Lynette Finch. Review of Connell, John, ed. Sydney: The Emergence of a World City. H-Urban, H- Net Reviews. April, 2002.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6136

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