Another cracker from Strange Maps – this time a map that is as fascinating as it is controversial. It will certainly wind people up with its simplistic imagery – but if it challenges people to think outside the box and see what’s really going on, then no bad thing. Made by some academics at the Global And World Cities research group, it’s a graphical attempt to capture the various intercontinental and international relationships that exist today. The problem is that it could be read to imply the importance (or even ‘value’) of a place relative to the size of its blob. So comments on the original post complain that it is pretty Anglo-centric (with New York & London getting the biggest blobs, apparently the only 2 panregional centres).

I’m not sure that this is quite the point though. As I see it, this is more to do with cultural relationships and the degrees to which places are (or are not) parochial in their outlook. As one who’s a born and bred Londoner and who has returned to live and work here, I have to say that it certainly fits with the multi-cultural nature of the place. It’s a cliché but you really are as likely to hear another language on the pavements as you are English. Anywhere in the city. The only thing I would add is that London has just as deep a relationship with the Indian subcontinent and the Far East as it does with the Middle East. You can certainly see that in the cross-section of London that is All Souls (70+ nationalities).

As one comment I think rightly suggests, perhaps this is more to do with where the world’s money is. But then of course, money is what makes the global capitalist world go round… And, for better or worse, London’s influence still stands as a hangover from its past as the pre-eminent colonial capital.

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