Abstract

London is one of the best connected cities in the world – from a structural as well as from a functional perspective. The central finance and business districts of the metropolis feature both an extraordinarily well-developed information infrastructure and an unusually high concentration of information-dependent businesses. Outside these core districts, however, global connectivity drops massively. An informational divide rips through the global city. This paper builds on a comparatively recent understanding of 'new electronic communications technologies as part of a long history of rich and often wayward social practices' (Thrift) and seeks to provide a historical perspective on the emergence of global connectivity patterns. Due to its longstanding history as a global financial centre and its central position in the global and domestic telegraph network of the nineteenth century, London will provide a suitable case study to examine the long-term interplay of socioeconomic and structural patterns in the creation of global information networks.

Recommended Citation

Wenzlhuemer, Roland (2009) "London in the Global Telecommunication Network of the Nineteenth Century," New Global Studies: Vol. 3 : Iss. 1, Article 2.
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/ngs/vol3/iss1/art2