The formation of the global city and the re-scaling of the State's space in post-fordist Western Europe

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between the global cities and the national States on the West Europe of the post 70. Most of the approaches about the formation of global cities are based on a zero-sum conception in relation to the spatial scale. By contrast, in this article, globalization is conceived as a contradictory reconfiguration of the spatial scales. From this point of view, the national States are not being eroded under the contemporary geo-economic conditions, but rearticulated, re-territorialized and re-scaled. The resulting re-scaled configuration of the spatiality of the State is temporarily denominated a "glocalized" State form. As nodes of accumulation of capital, global cities are key places of pos-fordist forms of industrial development. As coordinates of State territorial power, global cities are local and/or regional levels within the glocalized and re-territorial matrixes of the spatial organization of the State. The re-scaling of the State has thus come to serve as an important strategy of of accumulation through wich, these transformed institutions of the State are trying to promote the territorial competitiveness of its main urban regions. These arguments are illustrated through a general discussion of the interphase between global cities and the national States in contemporary Western Europe.