Global Networks

Switched on places are nations, regions or cities that are strongly connected to other places through goods and services.

Switched off places are nations, regions or cities that are poorly connected to other places, again in terms of goods and services.

A network is an illustration or a model that shows how different places are linked together, for example the London underground.

A node is a point on a network. It is a place that is linked to the rest of the world in lesser amounts than a global hub, typically a small town or village.

A hub is a large city, often a megacity, that is heavily connected to other hubs and nodes via many different flows.

A flow is the movement of a variety of things between hubs and nodes, for example money, raw materials, manufactured goods and services, information and people.

Global hubs and other major network nodes are switched on places possessing qualities that other places want to connect with them. Generally, it is the presence of either natural resources or human resources that drives the process. Global hubs are often "world cities" or may be technopoles. They also serve as core regions for their country's economy - places where wealth is created and spent, while ideas and innovations are shared as part of a multiplier effect, leading to a process called cumulative causation.

The world's poorest nations remain poor because they are not well connected to anywhere else in the world.

Oil rich nations, such as Dubai, have one flow coming in and one flow going out. The incoming flow is money and the outgoing flow is oil.