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. He discusses the role of local politics and the global urban institutions in reshaping the agenda for the world's urban citizens.
The World Urban Forum opens today in Rio de Janeiro, under the slogan "Right to the City: bridging the urban divide." Recent advances in urban economics allow us to see that this is a fundamental part of how cities function, not a radical concept.
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Most of these lobbies are worrying in terms of their impact on sustainability both of urban areas and of the planet. Do we need more cars given their capacity to pollute, kill and maim and their tendency to encourage urban sprawl?
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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.
