Global cities conduits for glocalisation The common activist adage of ‘think globally, act locally’ (Geddes, 1915) was first used as a formula for city planning. However, in using the phrase now (2014) for city planning, the reverse may be more accurate. As Xxxxxxxxxx (1995) discusses, the exact opposite may now be true: ‘think locally, act globally.’ He presents this as a theoretical concept, whilst the research here presents it within a framework of emerging empirical evidence, mainly from the global city of London and its associated local authorities. In addition, this reversal of concept within a broader context of frameworks and theories is part of a new paradigm in glocalisation and the political power structure. Xxxxxxxxxx provides us with an analysis on the changing role of the ‘local’ in the world-‐system. Much of his synthesis derives from the seminal research by Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxx, where they analyse the ‘the spatial articulation of the emerging world system of production and markets through a global network of cities’ (1982, p.309). Their hypothesis centres on the division of global labour as world cities integrate and geographically concentrate the global economy. Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxx provide an instrumental foundation for launching rigorous action research and academic debate on what Xxxxxx eventually and definitively dissects as ‘The Global City’ (2001). As Xxxxxxxxxx contends, the global is now local and the premise of previous theories may no longer reflect activities at the local level. Theories from the 1980’s and early 1990’s place the local stage in a reactive position to activities occurring on the global level (Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxx, 1982). Whilst Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxx acknowledge that global activities may have a significant impact on local areas, cities are at a disadvantage most of the time and must catch up to adapt, resist or potentially capitalise on the global acts. In this scenario, the power structure is one of dominant global activity juxtaposed with weak or submissive local response. The local areas are not presented as a major influencer of global activities. Specifically Xxxxxxxxxx identifies five themes from the literature (1995, p. 233-‐234):
