The social order of the global city

The social order of the global city shatters the illusions of the affl uent service
economy proposed by such commentators as Bell (1976) and Toffl er (1980). Producer
service jobs are global economy jobs, yet they involve a new class and spatial
polarization, involving new high-income sectors involved in professional work such
as investment management, research and development, administration and personnel,
and so on, and enjoying affl uent lifestyles made possible by the global economy.
On the other side are low income groups providing low-skilled services such as
clerical, janitorial, security and personal services. These low-income groups are
largely constituted by transnational migrants drawn from Third World zones. In
these global cities we see a concentration of new gendered and racialized transnational
labour pools increasingly facing the casualization and informalization
of work.