Technical report

Kybernetes

ISSN: 0368-492X

Article publication date: 1 December 1999

67

Citation

(1999), "Technical report", Kybernetes, Vol. 28 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1999.06728iab.007

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 1999, MCB UP Limited


Technical report

The following report was received for publication:

Cities of the future: This is one of a series of reports received from Panos which are intended to stimulate debate on important issues. They are funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD). The briefings are written by Professor Graham Haughton, head of the Centre for Urban Development and Environmental Management (CUDEM), Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK (e-mail: g.haughton@1mu.ac.uk).

The full report, for reasons of space, cannot be included in this issue but an introductory briefing to the full version is published here:

Cities of the future - dream or nightmare?

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, over half of the world’s population will be living in an urban environment – and that number will continue rising over the next few decades. Most of this new urban growth will take place in Africa and Asia. Yet many governments seem unprepared for the challenges that urbanisation will bring.

For much of the twentieth century the prevailing view has been one of deep pessimism about large cities: cities have been perceived as mushrooming out of control and representing a major problem for humankind. If urbanisation is indeed out of control, then the emergence of a new generation of very large cities may undermine any progress towards sustainable development.

Many environmentalists fear this scenario, but there are others who argue that cities are essential to national economic and social wellbeing, and that this wellbeing should in turn lead to environmental improvement. For many the problem is not urbanisation itself but more the inability of some cities to afford the necessary infrastructure to keep pace with the rate of population change and increases in consumption as incomes rise.

Other observers argue that the main problem lies in the inequalities between the urban rich and poor. These inequalities present not only a moral crisis but also the potential for economic disaster and civil unrest. Experts predict that 90 per cent of Latin America's poor will soon be living in cities and towns. For many this is a frightening prospect - not least if every city has to reinvent the wheel and make the same mistakes as those which have gone through the experience before.

Yet there are thousands of examples of how urban problems can be solved, leading others to be more optimistic about the future. They believe that with a combination of decentralised decision making and learning, cities can be the living environment of the future.

New systems of city management may be necessary to cope with the needs of today's urban populations. Some planners insist that a decentralised decision-making process is fundamental to ensuring that cities work for and not against people. Through a more people-based decision-making system, traditionally conflicting interest groups can learn to work together. The stimulation of informed debate and decision making is fundamental to the decentralisation of power.

In this respect many observers believe that effective urban management must be a self-organising system where everyone is responsible and everyone is also a player. Increasingly, outsiders are recognising that their role is not to impose solutions but to promote dialogue and cooperation and draw attention to the experiences of other cities and people across the world.

International organisations are taking up this challenge, devoting more attention to ensure that the world's new cities work for all their people. This year World Habitat Day (4 October) focuses on "Cities for All", while the UN's Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) was officially relaunched as the UN City Agency in May 1999.

For further information about this report contact:

PANOS LONDON, 9 White Lion Street, London N1 9PD. Tel: (0171) 278 1111; Fax: (0171) 278 0345; E-mail: panoslondon@gn.apc.org; Web: http://www.oneworld.org/panos

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