Exploring the Global Citie's Outlook in Developing Countries: Critique of the Current Dominant Approaches toward an Alternative Conceptual Framework

This research aims to explore the outlook of global cities in developing countries through the critical analysis. Global or globalizing cities have emerged in the developing countries during the past two decades. Some of the latest cases include Bangkok, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Shanghai, and Taipei. Other older cases involve Hong Kong, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, and Mexico City.Questions about the concepts and meanings of the global functions for development of these cities are raised when considering their role as part of the global cities network. The main body of literature on the patterns of the global city attempts to use the framework of the prime examples and paradigmatic cases of the global or globalizing cities such as London, New York, Paris, and Tokyo for evaluating the evidence of the globalization of cities in developing countries. Moreover, the success and the status of these cities are considered and measured mainly based on western criteria. This issue is due to the domination of western (Anglo-American) framework in the field of the globalization and the city. In contrast, an increasing number of academic researchersbelieve that the relationship between the global city concept and the issues of power, actors and institutions - that operate globally - is exaggerated. In their view, this challenge has led to the underestimation of the local context and probabilities. Hence, the application of the current dominant paradigm of the globalization for the outlook of the global cities in the developing countries has been criticized by them. They argue that achieving a general set of comprehensive and universal results is a barren probability. Meanwhile, a type of ethnocentrism dominates the literature of globalization and global cities. Moreover, it is problematic to focus the research on the limited and specific factors and criteria of globalization, especially when such research attempts to explain the results and outcomes of the global cities in the developing countries. Therefore, alternative approaches, differentiated with the current dominant ones, have been proposed in this regard. Other models based on the complexity and diversity of the effects and consequences must be adopted. Serious consideration for the valuation of the local and native capacities, priorities and differences is essential for any theoretical and empirical study on the process of the globalization in the developing countries. It is necessary to operationalize distinct types of measures instead of the current global city label in reference to them. Accordingly, it is very important to use innovative models or patterns through the adoption of new frameworks based on the various roles, positions, capacities, dimensions, effects and consequences. Instead of absolute acceptance of the dominant Anglo-American approaches, it is more useful to conduct further studies on the interaction between the global and local actors. Such approach, presented as an alternative conceptual framework in this paper, could act as a basis for further studies on new cases in the developing countries.