To Pankaj Ghemawat the term «globalisation» has misconceptions. In this interview, he provides insights about how theories about globalization can be translated from a country level to a city level. Indicators such as import-export, ethnicity or connectivity statistics can provide information which helps us understand how cities are connected with the rest of the world.
Which cities are less connected? One of the advantages that cities have over rural areas is greater levels of connectivity with the rest of the world. The governance of cities is much more complicated that the government of companies, says Ghemawat. Therefore, the notion is not that a city should be self-cointained and have everything, but that there are huge gains from trade. There is a rivalry between cities but there are more cooperative possibilities.