How is neoliberal globalization related to changes in urban social ecology and inequality?

Neoliberal globalization has brought a great disparity of wealth into city-regions in both developed and lesser developed nations.  Transnational foreign corporate interests have used neoliberal policies in order to gain control of the financial sector of these countries, and then adjusting it to suit their best interests (Haila, 2000, p.2242). The effects on the people living in these city-regions results in a highly stratified system of wealth distribution, with a small top percentage of the population earning a disproportionately high share of the wages. Neoliberal globalization policies have resulted in the middle class is being non existent in lesser developed nations, and in decline in developed ones. City-regions also contain a large population living in poverty, especially in lesser developed nations. These urban centers draw to them laborers searching for work and wealth, yet, according to Fainstein (285) no convincing evidence shows that the inhabitants of global cities and their surrounding regions fare better than the residents of lesser places. Instead, many fare far worse than their countrymen located in regions of the countries away from the city-region. The hope of wealth lures immigrants into urban centers but often they are met instead with poverty.

Neoliberal globalization has been introduced by transnational corporations that have had the benefit of operating in a sophisticated financial system (Fujita, 2000, p. 2197). The countries they encounter have financial systems that are far less sophisticated and are generally not under any regulatory control.  Regulatory control is a necessary in order to keep a financial system stable. Without it, they tend to stratify, as is obvious in the city-regions of lesser developed nations and transnational financial centers. When foreign institutional investors have gained proprietary control of their host nations finances, they can then begin to cut wages  and jobs to boost their share prices (Fujita, 2000, p.2199).

Neoliberal globalization promotes rapid urban development and the real estate market, privatization, commodification and radical shifts in urban socio-spatial transformation (He and Wu, 2009, p.284). The result is a highly stratified urban ecology in with a high degree of social inequality. Urban problems associated with poverty, such as violence and criminal activity, are prevalent and continue to increase as the chasm between the rich and poor widens.