URBLOG

What's it like to live in the middle of a population explosion?

'Everyone's sleeping with one eye open' James Meek reports from Lagos, bursting at the seams and soon to overtake Cairo as Africa's biggest city.

The road, lined with banks and churches, ....a dialogue between Christ and Mammon sputters at the expressway's edge. Jesus - The Answer. Zenith Bank. Skye Bank. Mountains of Fire and Miracles Ministry. Gracespring Chapel (Oil of Gladness Ministries Inc). GT Bank. EcoBank. Consuming Fire Christian Ministry.

"Why is the government trying to impose on our cities the developed world model of how a city should look? They're shying away from the fact that our economy is not as advanced as those countries'. ... By the time it comes together, this is what you end up with; this dirty, fragmented city is what the economy can carry for now. If we shy away from that, then we continue to inflict pain on our people."

Beyond studentification

Growing by Degrees: Universities in the Future of Urban Development

Given the effect that university expansion has already had on architectural and urban form around the world, Building Futures at the RIBA wanted to stimulate informed debate. This publication offers twelvefuture scenarios each projecting twenty years into the future to ask ‘what if’ certain trajectories of change take hold. Their impacts could be unexpected and greatly contribute to the role of higher education in cities.

What if all the students dry up? Peter Kingston in The Guardian

"A range of extremely worrying prospects do ... suggest themselves, and are worth keeping in mind...If only to ensure that they remain in the world of fantasy."

A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age

A two year investigation by the Children’s Society and draws upon the work of the UK’s leading experts in many fields, explores the main stresses and influences to which every child is exposed – family, friends, youth culture, values, and schooling,

Most of the obstacles children face today are linked to the belief among adults that the prime duty of the individual is to make the most of their own life, rather than contribute to the good of others. The inquiry report, A Good Childhood, says excessive individualism is causing a range of problems for children including: high family break-up, teenage unkindness, commercial pressures towards premature sexualisation, unprincipled advertising, too much competition in education and acceptance of income inequality.

Report summary

What gives children and young people a good childhood? (summary for children and young people)

Physical environment affects pupil achievement

The NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, has published One More Broken Window, the first study of its kind in the UK to examine the relationship between schools and the physical environment.

The Guardian: Walking past boarded-up houses and litter on the way to school can have a devastating effect on children's behaviour and exam results.

'...we should remind ourselves that "throughout government policy, schools are presented as though they exist in isolation from the surrounding area".'