I'm reminded of some of the descriptions of Discworld's Ankh-Morpork- it keeps getting invaded but in the end each wave of invaders ends up subsumed into the metropolis, and the city continues more or less unchanged.
Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
21–30 of 50 posts
Re: Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
#22From the article: "Today cities have become the world’s dominant demographic and economic clusters."
Seeing that cities are essentially clusters of people, isn't this fairly self-evident?
Re: Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
#23Michael Bloomberg wrote an article in Foreign Affairs saying that cities are now the centers of public policy innovation, in part because state and Federal governments are either controlled or blocked by people who want no policy and no innovation. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-08-18/city-cent... My anecdotal, off-the-top-of-my-head memories bear that out: Almost all innovative policy, from biking to f…
I am curious how this contrasts with the increasing freedom of movement -- people are increasingly able to pick and choose which city to live in.
One of the greatest 'anchors' holding an individual or a family to a city is cost, so what happens when that cost is reduced to the bare minimum? Would we see the migration to urban centers accelerate (eg: Chicago holding >50% of Illinois' population rather than the current 20%)?
Would we see a return to informal alliances like the Hanseatic League[1] as cities increasingly view their Federal overlords as inadequate or obstinate?
Re: Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
#24Other than intuitive observation of the creative class economy, this article offers neither a definition of "dominant, enduring social structures" nor evidence outside of GDP as a metric. So far it's like "duh GDP in this day and age is a product of high-density geographic regions." Am I missing something here?
Perhaps the bit about companies setting up near an airport. Thus they ensure global access and think of their "home city" as mostly yet another venue. That, I think, someone serves as an insular force for the present "big" localities - localities large enough to have an international airport.
Re: Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
#25From the article: "Today cities have become the world’s dominant demographic and economic clusters." Seeing that cities are essentially clusters of people, isn't this fairly self-evident?
No. There was a period in the mid-late 20th century where it appeared that the future was really in car-oriented sprawl, and the cities were abandoned to the poor people and minorities who couldn't afford to get out. The population growth, wealth, voters, political power, consumers, and the American Dream itself were in metro areas but definitely not city limits.
The idea of that cultural moment having ended is relatively new.
Re: Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
#26For a deeper look into the role of cities in society, check out the work of Jane Jacobs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Jacobs#Works
Re: Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
#27Intuitively this seems like an obvious result of the network effect. (edit: I'm not intending to belittle anyone here and I apologise if it may seem that way). Axiomatically, socially the sum of two humans is greater than the two humans apart. And large cities, with metros, many villages that melt into one, employment opportunity, talks, bars, etc, are the embodiment of what it means to be social (with some exception…
> Most public transport subsidies go to the capital Most public transport revenue also comes from the capital. While literally millions of London's commuters pay thousands of dollars a year each for the privilege of being herded into overfilled cattle cars twice a day, Welsh/Scots/Northerners don't actually use the public transport they demand and hence it runs at a massive loss until it inevitably gets shutdown yet…
> Most public transport revenue also comes from the capital
This is incorrect. 40% of 'Transport for London' (TfL) spending comes from fares, and approx. 27% from government [0]. That represents a real cash subsidy of £3.1B per year for londoners.
The disparity in infrastructure spending per resident is even more stark [1]. London receives more than half of all such spending in England despite containing less than a sixth of its population.
[0] https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/how-we-work/how-we-ar... [1] http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/aug/07/london-...
Re: Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any region which isn't urban is, basically, Incapable of adaptation. It is totally beholden to the natural resources it has. Fertile soil? Shale oils? Nice beaches? Forests? The environment you have basically fixes your destiny. A government presiding over a rural area basically has to become like a corporation whose sole purpose is stewardship and exploitation of that natural resource. Whereas cities are human const…
That's a very insightful thought. I do find it interesting how people are coming to the idea that local governments are where new ideas are formed, but degrade the concepts of States' rights or smaller federal intervention as racism whenever it doesn't suit a liberal agenda.
Because "States' rights" has historically been used as a dog-whistle for racism, segregation, and voter suppression. Moreover, the article is referring to city/local government which is different from the state. I don't see how conflating local innovation with state oppression is a liberal agenda.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States%27_rights#States.27_rig...
Re: Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Most public transport subsidies go to the capital Most public transport revenue also comes from the capital. While literally millions of London's commuters pay thousands of dollars a year each for the privilege of being herded into overfilled cattle cars twice a day, Welsh/Scots/Northerners don't actually use the public transport they demand and hence it runs at a massive loss until it inevitably gets shutdown yet…
> Most public transport revenue also comes from the capital This is incorrect. 40% of 'Transport for London' (TfL) spending comes from fares, and approx. 27% from government [0]. That represents a real cash subsidy of £3.1B per year for londoners. The disparity in infrastructure spending per resident is even more stark [1]. London receives more than half of all such spending in England despite containing less than a…
What proportion of that 27% comes from taxes collected from Londoners?
Re: Megacities, not nations, are the world’s dominant, enduring social structures
#30Michael Bloomberg wrote an article in Foreign Affairs saying that cities are now the centers of public policy innovation, in part because state and Federal governments are either controlled or blocked by people who want no policy and no innovation. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-08-18/city-cent... My anecdotal, off-the-top-of-my-head memories bear that out: Almost all innovative policy, from biking to f…
Any region which isn't urban is, basically, Incapable of adaptation. It is totally beholden to the natural resources it has. Fertile soil? Shale oils? Nice beaches? Forests? The environment you have basically fixes your destiny. A government presiding over a rural area basically has to become like a corporation whose sole purpose is stewardship and exploitation of that natural resource. Whereas cities are human const…
Well said. I thought this was a brilliant insight.