Abstract:

In an era of globalization, the distribution and composition of the world economy has witnessed profound changes.In particular, the later 20^th Century witnessed a transition from Fordism to flexible accumulation.The new experience of time-space compression, appearing along with this transition, reflects a more sensitive orientation of capital.The new international division of labor is, by nature, an attempt of multi-national corporations to expand their internal division of labor to developing countries by virtue of their capital advantages, while foreign direct investment is a major means to realize this strategic goal and the allocation of production.Since the 1980s, foreign direct investment has largely concentrated on the service industry, while the financial industry and advanced producer services tend to converge in the world major cities, which has given rise to global cities (or called world cities).In this process, global cities have gradually become the dominating playing fields of the activities of the world economy, while the strengths of nation-states have been weakened.However, the complicated dynamics between the two is by no means as simple as it appears to be, leaving much to be explored.

Key words: globalization, Fordism, flexible accumulation, time-space compression, NIDL, global cities