Abstract

This paper studies the level of integration of Singapore, a global city, among leading subnets in the world city network. Particularly economic aspects of globalization in Singapore as an Asia Pacific city are examined. Within this general framework, the article pursues three specific aims. The first is to provide a comprehensive review of the literature and views of scholars on globalization, and world cities network. Here, Taylor and Sassen’s theories are the main literature chosen to review which seems to be widely interlinked. The second is to apply the facts collected from literature in the first section on Singapore, to examine its position in the network of global cities. The third and the final aim is to conclude the study by creating a particular framework on how to evaluate the level of integration of a global city within the world cities network with respect to specific dimension. In addition the paper reflects on two debates: one on the nature of comparative analysis; the other critical debate on the normative nature of rankings and charts for examining it. The results of this article would help policy-makers and planners in national and international level, who are focused on economic aspects, to derive normative ideas to implement policies and strategies for economic development of cities.