Abstract Sydney has emerged as a major global city in the 21st century. We review the “global city thesis”, which dominates urban scholarship and practice, and ask whether it adequately captures the Sydney experience. Although the global city thesis is a useful analytical construct for policy makers and scholars, we argue that it does not adequately chart Sydney’s rise as a leading global city and its current problems. The global city thesis ignores the political institutions and processes that shape and direct the global city. The City of Sydney is a small area of the city-region, accounting for only about four percent of the metropolis. Sydney lacks a metropolitan or regional government and has few regional collaborative processes or platforms. Instead the global city strategy of Sydney is shaped and directed by the New South Wales state government. This is contrary to the political decentralisation and devolution trends heralded by international actors such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sydney also illustrates the dilemma of global cities in that those members at the top of the knowledge economy are highly rewarded and those in the middle and lower strata face difficulty maintaining or improving their situations. Local governments lack the capacity to act independently and the state and federal governments are unwilling to address serious urban problems associated with globalisation, such as public transit or housing. Given the governments' embrace of neoliberalism, the global city vision advanced by leaders is threatened. There is little concrete policy offered by any level of government to address the crisis.

中文翻译：

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全球城市悉尼

摘要 悉尼已成为 21 世纪的全球主要城市。我们回顾了主导城市学术和实践的“全球城市论文”，并询问它是否充分体现了悉尼的经验。尽管全球城市论点对于政策制定者和学者来说是一个有用的分析结构，但我们认为它并没有充分描绘悉尼作为全球领先城市的崛起及其当前问题。全球城市论点忽视了塑造和指导全球城市的政治制度和过程。悉尼市是城市区域的一小部分，仅占大都市的 4% 左右。悉尼缺乏大都市或地区政府，也几乎没有区域协作流程或平台。相反，悉尼的全球城市战略是由新南威尔士州政府制定和指导的。这与经济合作与发展组织等国际参与者所预示的政治权力下放和权力下放趋势背道而驰。悉尼还说明了全球城市的困境，知识经济顶端的成员获得了高额回报，而中下层的成员则难以维持或改善他们的状况。地方政府缺乏独立行动的能力，州政府和联邦政府不愿意解决与全球化相关的严重城市问题，例如公共交通或住房。鉴于政府拥抱新自由主义，领导人提出的全球城市愿景受到威胁。