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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, June 17, 2017
Urbanisation 2.0
Featured image courtesy Human Cities Coalition
CARL BILDT on 06/15/2017
CHICAGO – We are now in the final days of the industrial age. Just as
the second generation of steam engines propelled the Industrial
Revolution forward, so, too, are new technologies advancing today’s
digital revolution. But as technology races ahead of us, it is difficult
to anticipate what the future holds.
One thing we do know is that the future will be shaped by two key
trends: digitisation and urbanisation. And the possibilities introduced
by the former will likely help us overcome the problems associated with
the latter.
When the Industrial Revolution was first gaining momentum at the
beginning of the nineteenth century, only a small percentage of the
global population lived in cities. The world was still predominantly
rural and agricultural, as it had been for thousands of years. But as
industrialization accelerated, so did urbanization, as impoverished
farmworkers flocked to factories.
We are now in another period of epochal change, and urbanisation is
accelerating again. In 1950, approximately one-third of the planet’s 2.5
billion people lived in cities, whereas today, just over half of the
world’s 7.5 billion people do. And by 2050, when the global population
is expected to reach nine billion, an estimated two-thirds of all people
will live in cities.
Urban areas are magnets for young people and entrepreneurs, because they
provide a wide range of opportunities and dense professional and social
networks. It is no coincidence that 80% of economic output originates in cities: urbanization is the engine of economic growth.
But while it is easy to focus on success stories such as Singapore and
Dubai, or on the impressive features of cosmopolitan centers such as New
York or London, urbanisation is not without its challenges.
By 2050, some 600 million people will live in the world’s 25 largest
cities, none of which are in the European Union. Most are in Asia,
followed by Africa, including Karachi, Pakistan; Kabul, Afghanistan;
Khartoum, Sudan; and Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And
some believe that by 2100, Lagos, Nigeria, will be the world’s largest
city – showing how quickly Africa is catching up.
At the recent Chicago Forum on Global Cities,
policy thinkers and practitioners – including past and current mayors
from Amman, Chicago, Prague, Lahore, Rio de Janeiro, and Toronto – met
for a couple of days to discuss common challenges on the road ahead.
They all agreed that many solutions to future problems will come not
from national governments, but from municipal and regional-level
policymakers.
Many cities and states in the United States are already bringing this
point home, by ignoring US President Donald Trump’s renunciation of the
Paris climate agreement, and doubling down on their own efforts to
reduce carbon dioxide emissions and achieve energy sustainability.
Indeed, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo have
now joined forces to combat climate change, giving the lie to Trump’s claim that he was elected to “represent Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
Climate change is one of three major challenges that will confront us in
this new period of hyper-urbanisation. Because all cities depend on
energy, more needs to be done to improve sustainability and efficiency.
Municipal and regional governments will need to step up their efforts to
curb energy use, and introduce new green technologies, particularly in
more rural areas.
The second challenge will be to address the effects of new digital
technologies that are generally associated with the so-called sharing
economy. Hardware and software applications that provide on-demand
transportation, delivery, hospitality, and other services will
revolutionise how cities operate and are organized; but adapting to
these changes will require innovative new policies.
The third challenge relates to migration and its attendant security
concerns. Global migration will likely continue to increase in the
coming decades, with the very rich and the very poor alike flocking to
megacities. Without the policies and infrastructure in place to absorb
these new arrivals, megacities could fail, and degenerate into urban
jungles that pose a security threat to surrounding regions and the world
beyond.
Addressing these challenges will require deeper dialogue among global
cities themselves. In the recent discussions in Chicago, there was a
general sense that national governments, while important, do not
approach most of these issues practically, or with the urgency they
require. The Chicago dialogues, on the other hand, epitomized
practicality, by finding common ground across wide geographic and
cultural boundaries.
This implies that we should be careful not to exaggerate the differences
between the most and the least advanced global cities. Security
solutions in Toronto might very well be applicable in Karachi; and
digital services in Singapore could eventually take root in Kabul.
Just as industrialism ushered in a new age for cities and countries, so,
too, will digitisation. To see the future that is taking shape, one
need only look to the cities that are already shaping it.
This article is part of a content-sharing agreement with Project Syndicate. For more content, click here.