City Futures
Subtitle: Confronting the Crisis of Urban Development (Global Issues)
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: August 19, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781842775417
Subjects: Development studies; Urban communities; Urban renewal & regeneration; Social Science; Sociology; Public Policy - Regional Planning; Sociology - Urban; Social Science / Sociology / Urban
Description: Cities are the future. In the past two decades, a global urban revolution has taken place, mainly in the South. The 'mega-cities' of the developing world are home to over 10 million people each and even smaller cities are experiencing unprecedented population surges. The problems surrounding this influx of people - slums, poverty, unemployment and lack of governance - have been well-documented. This book is a powerful indictment of the current consensus on how to deal with these challenges. Pieterse argues that the current 'shelter for all' and 'urban good governance' policies treat only the symptoms, not the causes of the problem. Instead, he claims, there is an urgent need to reinvigorate civil society in these cities, to encourage radical democracy, economic resilience, social resistance and environmental sustainability folded into the everyday concerns of marginalised people. Providing a dynamic picture of a cosmopolitan urban citizenship, this book is an essential guide to one of the new century's greatest challenges.