Lots of 'solutions' get presented at events like the Urban and Housing Development conference in Cape Town, but can a model really provide a sustainable solution if it excludes large parts of the city? Does a partial solution help solve a problem or merely perpetuate existing inequalities?
Who inspires you? There are many celebrated ideas and personalities in the field of urban development, but how many survive the test of time? John Turner's argument that housing is most successful when produced through the autonomy of its residents remains popular, influential, but often misunderstood. Today two writers, representing very different generations, reflect on the legacy of a quiet hero of global urbanism.
Yusaf Samiullah OBE argues for the complexity of urban environments, stating that this is what international development organisations must apprehend and address if they are to improve the quality of urban livelihoods.
Eminent housing and urban development consultant Geoffrey Payne offers a personal view on the international framework governing the global urban agenda.
Who sets the global urban agenda? What are the world's urban priorities? What should they be? Three international experts and a roomful of readers battled out these questions and more.
What happens when a foreign charity introduces an agenda that aligns with local entrepreneurial initiatives? Will locals be seen as like-minded stakeholders or as 'competition'?
Andrew Stevens and Jonas Schorr argue that instead of grandiose schemes like a global senate of mayors, we must concentrate on creating popular demand for city networking, and giving more power and visibility to existing efforts.
Alan Gilbert doesn't believe there is one, but if one must speak of a global urban agenda, he would point to local private sector lobbies as the common force driving similar agendas in cities around the world.
Simply creating urban policies that parallel India's rural policies won't fully solve the problem of urban poverty, especially when migrants and other groups fall into the cracks between the two policy regimes.
Africa is not urbanising as rapidly as we think. What are the implications for the business world, or for the possibilities for local economic development?
Martyrs' Square was the focal point for the 2005 demonstrations that saw Syria relinquish control of Lebanon. How do its citizens now regard this polarising space, and how should placemakers respond? Tanya Gallo investigates.
Andrew Fleming (Twitter: @AndrewSFleming) works as the Senior Researcher at the Cape Town Partnership, a non-profit company dedicated to the…
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
