A global city or world city is a city deemed to be an important node point in the global economic system. The concept comes from geography and urban studies and rests on the idea that globalisation can be understood as largely created, facilitated and enacted in strategic geographic locales according to a hierarchy of importance to the operation of the global system of finance and trade. The most complex of these entities is the "global city," whereby the linkages binding a city have a direct and tangible effect on global affairs through more than socio-economic means, with influence in terms of culture, or politics. Sassen, Saskia - blank">The global city: strategic site/new frontier The terminology of "global city", as opposed to megacity, is thought to have been first coined by _Saskia Sassen in reference to London, New York and Tokyo in her 1991 work The Global City. Today, the term is often associated with the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network based at the geography department of Loughborough University, which aims to provide a categorization and ranking of world cities.