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Planning our urban future

World Habitat Day 5th October

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day. The idea is to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and the basic right of all to adequate shelter. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

UN Resources

Habitat for Humanity resources

Right to the City conference papers published

Most of the papers from the 'Right to the City' conference (Berlin, 6-8 November 2008) have been published in a special double issue of the journal CITY: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action .

This special issue of CITY (volume 13, issues 2-3) explores the theme ‘Cities for people, not profit’ through wide-ranging contributions by a diverse group of European and North American urban theorists, sociologists, planners and activists.

You can view the Editorial, Introduction and Tom Slater's paper on 'Missing Marcuse: On gentrification and displacement' for FREE online.

 

Castells at LSE

Event: Communication Power
Speaker: Professor Manuel Castells
Date: Thursday 9 July 2009, 6.30pm

This event marks the launch of Manuel Castells latest book, Communication Power. In this wide-ranging and powerful book, Castells analyses the transformation of the global media industry by the revolution in communication technologies.
Ticket release date: Tuesday 30 June, 10am

Further information about the events and how to request a ticket can be found online.

C40 meeting in Korea

World Cities Tackling Climate Change

C40 is a group of the world's largest cities committed to tackling climate change. Cities have a central role to play in tackling climate change, particularly as cities bear a disproportional responsibility for causing it. In fact, cities consume 75 per cent of the world's energy and produce 80 per cent of its greenhouse gas emissions. That is why it is so important for cities to work together, set the agenda on this issue and show leadership on this issue.

Through effective partnership working with the Clinton Climate Initiative C40 will help deliver emissions reductions and better energy efficiency.

Albert Basin and Elephant and Castle selected for newly launched climate positive development program

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."

Digital divide persists but decreasing slightly

ITU’s new ICT Development Index (IDI) compares developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) in 154 countries over a five-year period from 2002 to 2007. The Index combines 11 indicators into a single measure that can be used as a benchmarking tool globally, regionally and at the country level. These are related to ICT access, use and skills, such as households with a computer the number of Internet users; and literacy levels.

Developing countries drive explosion in global mobile phone use The Guardian

In the Dubai the losers are the invisible majority.

Dubai's six-year building boom grinds to halt as financial crisis takes hold

"I sold our land and took loans in the village to come here," said   a 20-year-old Bangladeshi farmer. "I paid the agent £2,000 to bring me. He said I would earn 1,500 dirham [£287] a month, but we are paid 572 dirham. When I return people in the village will want their money but I have none."

A  construction site manager said he had protested to his boss about the treatment of labourers. "We tell them to bring their clothes to work one day and then we send them home. It makes me feel sick. I asked why it had to be done so quickly and I was told a lot of them commit suicide and we don't want that on our hands."

The people crunch

Global migration and the downturn from The Economist

The economic slump is battering migrants. For tens of millions of people working outside their homelands, life is becoming much more precarious.

 Workers waiting at airports: some flying off to seek modest fortunes, others returning to poor homelands whose main export is people. These images of the global labour market in the early 21st century are starting to fade as economic times get harder, both in countries that take in migrants and (partly as a result) in countries that send them out.

See also IPPR on the new Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill

“Migrants become easy targets at times of economic difficulty but introducing yet more tough measures to exclude people could damage our prospects for economic recovery. As it stands, the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill could deter migrants who are in high demand and who are essential for our economy."

New UN STATE OF THE WORLD'S CITIES report

Harmonious Cities

The report from UN Habitat  adopts the concept of Harmonious Cities as a theoretical framework in order to understand today's urban world, and also as an operational tool to confront the most important challenges facing urbanization and development processes. For the first time, preliminary findings of a global analysis of spatial, socio-economic and environmental dimensions at the city level are presented in order to promote greater understanding of the dynamics and forces that promote harmony in cities. The book also analyses the determinants of urban growth or decline, which can help guide planners in supporting processes that lead to harmonious urban development.

John Vidal in The Guardian

'In a survey of 120 major cities New York was found to be the ninth most unequal in the world and Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington, and Miami had similar inequality levels to those of Nairobi, Kenya and Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Many were above an internationally recognised acceptable "alert" line used to warn governments.

India was becoming more unequal as a direct result of economic liberalisation and globalisation, and that the most unequal cities were in South Africa and Namibia and Latin America. "The cumulative effect of unequal distribution [of wealth] has been a deep and lasting division between rich and poor. Trade liberalisation did not bring about the expected benefits."'

Fear and the city

In July, citizens of ten major world cities were surveyed for the World Social Summit (WSS) to find out how London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, New York, Mumbai, Beijing, Tokyo, São Paulo and Cairo experience fear and insecurity. The report, Fear in the Mega-Cities,  presented to the WSS in Rome  reveals much about the state of global anxiety. 

Frank Furedi in New Statesman