Super-Urban Enclaves of Globality and BRIC Prospects in the Post-Globalization Age

Globalization effects traditionally considered in terms of gap between two groups of nations identified as ‘global North’ and ‘global South’ or between the ‘core’ countries and countries belonging to ‘periphery’ and ‘semi-periphery’ of the global economy should be revised as wealth and power are concentrated in networks of super-urban areas playing role of ‘command centers’ in transnational economy.

The super-urban areas outperform national economies. According to the Brookings Institution research (2012), the largest 300 cities contain only 19% of the world’s population but they generate 48% of the world’s GDP. Brexit and Trump’s campaign have showed sharp social divides inside ‘global North’. Voters in small towns and rural areas less involved into transnational networks and flows are against political agenda supported by super-urban population.

The divide between the group of the largest cities and the rest of communities supports the idea that globalization has resulted not in the ‘world society’ or ‘worldwide sociality’ but rather in networked enclaves of globality. In such metropolitan areas as New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Moscow, or Toronto people experience globality as borderless, mobile, and multicultural life because there they are in hubs of transnational material, human, and symbolic flows. Globalization is not planetary spread of Modernity institutions but rather localized displacement of habitual social structures by intensive flows.

In the post-globalization age the ‘core’ of socioeconomic order is dispersed into networks of enclaves of globality. The nations’ prospects of development depend on number, size, and influence of cosmopolitan super-urban areas attracting and generating flows. The index of super-urbanization is proposed to measure nations’ prospects under post-globalization conditions. BRIC countries expected to be future leaders have actually moderate potential. Brazil (0,0226), Russia (0,0279), India (0,0076), and China (0,0240) are rated below many countries including US (0,0355) and ideal case of Singapore (close to 1,0).