CITIES, SPACE AND POWER
The dynamics of cities and urbanisation is complex; even more so in emerging economies and when addressing issues of space and transformation. Burdett (2015) states that, while most large cities of Europe and parts of North America were already at their current size in 1950 and may be described as ‘mature’ cities, Latin America, the west coast of the United States of America (USA), Japan and some Asian cities have different patterns of growth and it was only in the era before the 1990s that they considerably evolved in terms of size and population. The author (Burdett 2015) explains that most future global urban growth will happen in Sub-Saharan Africa, India, China and Asia and proceeds to outline these differences, stating that: [D]elhi [is] growing at 79 people/hour, Shanghai at 53 and Mumbai at 51; Latin American cities like Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro slowing to 22, 18 and 10… Hong Kong’s highly controlled and efficient planning regime leads to a relatively low projection of 4 people/hour… (n.p.) There is great concern about the damage that cities and urbanisation inflicts on the environment; it has also been argued that (Heathcote 2011). [T ]he biggest cities are in fact the greenest. Their density, the close proximity in which people live and the minimal amount of land they occupy… makes for a far smaller carbon footprint… Mumbai is probably the greenest big city there is – slums like the million-strong Dharavi use minimal land, energy and water. (n.p.) As we grapple with the scale of urbanisation, and the fact that cities will grow even more in the future, we need to better understand and respond to this complexity: ‘As economic and environmental crises deepen, there is a growing recognition that many aspects of our lives need to be reinvented’ (Forum for the Future et al. n.d.). It is hoped that this book contributes to this ‘re-invention’ of cities and urbanisation in uncertain times.
source :
https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/6d5bb392-35dd-4f8e-a9ae-63078c50f644/9781928523666.pdf