Welcome to this weblog
A few months ago, the human race reached a significant moment in its history. For the first time ever, the majority of human beings now live in cities.
What does this mean? Is it a sign that modernity is extending its benefits to ever more people, or simply a catastrophic over-concentration? What kinds of living can people expect for themselves as the population of some cities begins to exceed twenty millions? Will these giant megapolises produce only mind-numbing bedlam or will they also be places of fertility, poetry and beauty? Are we right to imagine that the urban future is locked into nightmarish intensification, or are we free to imagine more sustainable possibilities for our cities?
The question of the future of cities is all the more urgent at a time when the most iconic of Western cities - London, Paris and New York - have all recently been struck by traumatic disasters that have called into question their security and sustainability, and the fundamental nature of their relationship to global events and flows. Those cities have traditionally given form to the plans of aspiring cities all over the world, but with the awesome rise of new urban power centres in Asia is it possible that the planet's future cities will begin to diverge from existing Western models?
Over the next three months, this blog will be an environment for debating all such questions about our life in cities.
Part of 大象传媒 Radio 3's "Free Thinking" blog network, which includes two other blogs about UK cities, this blog will focus particularly on the idea of the global city, and on cities from around the world. I will be writing it from my home in Delhi, and it will feature a number of scenes and anecdotes from this city which I hope will give a flavour of the urban reality that surrounds me. Since I am a novelist, I will not restrict myself to numbers, and discussions of how novelists and filmmakers have looked at particular cities will also feature here.
I hope many people will choose to help me think about these fascinating and crucial questions, and look forward to receiving your comments and ideas.
It would be foolish to deny progress: life before and after electricity or penicillin, for instance. And yet, it seems to me, we should be mindful of what Marcus Aurelius, the most philosophical of the Roman Emperors, meant when he said nearly 20 centuries ago that anyone who has carefully observed human affairs, including the changes in it, for 40 years is most unlikely to be surprised by any genuinely new developments. Or, as someone else put it, history is (fundamentally) the same, only (superficially)different.
Cities are bad ideas, people should live closer to nature, it is more sustainable. google thoreau and epicurus and learn more
less people is the answer, more info at www.vhemt.org :)
A few thoughts:
London, New York and Paris retain a sense of their past; in a few years Shanghai,Beijing or Mumbai may completely erase theirs, apart from the few imperial buildings that stand there.
London and Paris have been bombed in a war, and people who live there remember it vividly; most people who live in the new Asian cities have no comparable experience. In some ways that makes it more difficult for them to deal with a random act of terror.
A few thoughts:
London, New York and Paris retain a sense of their past; in a few years Shanghai,Beijing or Mumbai may completely erase theirs, apart from the few imperial buildings that stand there.
London and Paris have been bombed in a war, and people who live there remember it vividly; most people who live in the new Asian cities have no comparable experience. In some ways that makes it more difficult for them to deal with a random act of terror.
Cities are a difficult concept for me. They have the potential for becoming crowded, chaotic and tragic places, and for re-constructing themselves to neutralize and beautifying the 'ugly'. Curitiba, Brazil was (and is) considered innovative in its approach to dealing with common urban issues, such as poverty,over-crowding, pollution, transport and waste disposal. Although smaller in population scale than the megapolises forming around the world, it has served as a model for many urban planners. Another model, although more controversial, is the policy of gentrification. This latter form, which appears to be more commonly applied, may possibly lead to greater societal unrest in the long term as displaced citizens (often the poor and ethnic minority groups) are increasingly excluded from the rewards of economic development.
The astronomer, Fred Hoyle, wrote many years ago that the only progress he could envisage was something where our consciousness was able to share in the experiences of others.
Are cities, among other things, tools which enable large numbers of people to do more than just work efficiently, more than just be housed at high density -- but to engage in continual close contact, in an environment pulling them upward and outward by its very architecture.
Most of us live in cities and the many questions and opinions about 'what this means' could easily fill the space of this short-life blog .. and a million more. But I wonder if this broad approach for a blog will only generate generalised questions and therefore generalised answers - a million words that melt into air? Or could we not begin with imagining the future, starting from our own feelings and experiences. The thoughts can then become more personal, more social, more blog-like. As a novelist and the facilitator here you could begin to orchestrate a project that coalesces around a 'theme'; this theme, or plot, or story-line, could take place in a 'micro-city' or even a gigantic building that deals with the concerns and pleasures of living in a city. This 'micro-city building' could become the framework or structure that helps contain and produce meaning from the blog. You may even be able to base your next novel on the 'research' that blossoms from this blog, and we as participants could begin to feel we have been involved in a creative endeavour that has produced something concrete. I can begin to imagine the framework for this project but it would be even more fascinating to hear the imagined stories that might take place in the framework of the imagined micro-city.
I like Tony Hall's idea and hope that others will share in wanting to enter a discussion that has focus on sustainability and the city. Finding focus on the city is of particular interest in England, as there is such a distinction in values from village to city.
In good time people of all walks of life have the opportunity to express their thoughts regarding todays living. Issues that concern as all.
Sonia
Why has there been such a surge in city living?
Who is coming into the city and just as important who is being forced out.
The promotion of city living is fuelled by property speculators, or so it would seem.
In Liverpool there has been a massive development in city apartments, along with that has been increase in both property prices and rents.
A large amount of landlords have taken large warehouse style properties away from artists who had rented them when no one else wanted them
Thosed properties have then become apartments this has seen the cultural quarter moved further and further out of the city
In addition many low cost city cnter housing has disappeared to be replaced by student accommodation
How long before the city becomes so exclusive not just to live in but to visit
Now that more than half the world's population reside in cities it is absolutely timely to think about our post-urban future because, by default, that is the only one we have.
Modernity has bought us many great things including virtual infrastructures which allow us to contemplate a post-urban society which is not pre-modern but post-modern.
I believe that the biggest step towards a post-urban future (one in which town and country have, so to speak disolved into each other and the conflict between them has been resolved) will be the abolition of commuting. People must, once again, live where they work but this time with the benefits of modern technology which allow us to go beyond modernist, anti-human economies of scale. Imagine what that would do for the social environment and commuting must be one of the biggest factors in global climate erosion.
Good luck with the project Rana.
Now that more than half the world's population reside in cities it is absolutely timely to think about our post-urban future because, by default, that is the only one we have.
Modernity has bought us many great things including virtual infrastructures which allow us to contemplate a post-urban society which is not pre-modern but post-modern.
I believe that the biggest step towards a post-urban future (one in which town and country have, so to speak disolved into each other and the conflict between them has been resolved) will be the abolition of commuting. People must, once again, live where they work (not where they're born or are from but where they work) but this time with the benefits of modern technology which allow us to go beyond modernist, anti-human economies of scale. Imagine what that would do for the social environment and commuting must be one of the biggest factors in global climate erosion.
Good luck with the project Rana.
Now that more than half the world's population reside in cities it is absolutely timely to think about our post-urban future because, by default, that is the only one we have.
Modernity has bought us many great things including virtual infrastructures which allow us to contemplate a post-urban society which is not pre-modern but post-modern.
I believe that the biggest step towards a post-urban future (one in which town and country have, so to speak disolved into each other and the conflict between them has been resolved) will be the abolition of commuting. People must, once again, live where they work (not where they're born or are from but where they work) but this time with the benefits of modern technology which allow us to go beyond modernist, anti-human economies of scale. Imagine what that would do for the social environment and commuting must be one of the biggest factors in global climate erosion.
Good luck with the project Rana.
In reply to Gerry Holsgrove - why are people flocking to live in cities - they are coming to them to be part of something. As society fragments, and more people live on their own, I think people want to find a way of belonging to something, and well planned cities provide this. They provide an easily accessible area, filled with community events that you can choose to take part in. Re his other point about property developers coming in and gentrifying - leading to the explulsion of poorer people - yes, this is true, it is happening. But, there are ways to deal with this by forward thinking city planners. I used to live in Liverpool and always thought the houses in the city were tragically neglected. It's not a shame they are being lived in, but a shame at how the area is being developed. I moved to Chicago, where the Mayor (Mayors in America have the power, not just the title) is hailed as a Green and forward thinker and some UK cities would do well to look at how Chicago developed from it's first rebuilding after the fire (when the waterfront was preserved for the people's enjoyment forever) and the latest resurgence headed by Daley. (See also the Congess for New Urbanism, headed by another forward thinking Mayor, (Norquist).
I now live in California, where urban planning is still playing catch up outside San Fran, and the love affair with the car/SUV still prevails...