Urbanisation & City Life

Watch

• Urbanization and the future of cities - Vance Kite ↗TED-Ed
• 7 principles for building better cities | Peter Calthorpe | TED ↗TED
• The impact of urbanisation in Africa, explained - BBC Africa ↗BBC News Africa
• The simple idea that could transform city life | BBC Ideas ↗BBC Ideas
• Copenhagen - The world’s greenest capital city? | DW Documentary ↗DW Documentary
• City of the Future: Singapore – Full Episode | National Geographic ↗National Geographic

Read

• The Death and Life of Great American Cities ↗A foundational critique of mid-20th-century urban planning, this work champions the vibrant, messy complexity of street life and local economies over grand, sterile designs.Jane Jacobs
• Urbanism as a Way of LifeThis seminal essay defines the sociological characteristics of urban living, exploring how density, heterogeneity, and size shape social relations and individual psychology.Louis Wirth
• The Metropolis and Mental LifeAn early, incisive exploration into the psychological adaptations required by city dwellers, detailing how the intensity and anonymity of urban life forge a distinct metropolitan personality.Georg Simmel
• Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum ↗An ethnographic masterpiece, this study offers an intimate look at the informal social structures, loyalties, and power dynamics within a Boston slum, revealing the resilience of community.William Foote Whyte
• The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects ↗A monumental historical and philosophical survey of urban development, tracing the evolution of cities from ancient settlements to modern metropolises and their profound impact on human civilisation.Lewis Mumford
• City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles ↗A searing, critical examination of Los Angeles, this book dissects the city's dystopian tendencies, exposing the interplay of power, class, race, and urban design in shaping its fragmented landscape.Mike Davis

Voices to follow

• Richard Florida ↗His work dissects the role of creativity and talent in driving urban economic growth and social change, often sparking debate on gentrification and inequality.Professor, University of Toronto; Senior Editor, The Atlantic Cities
• Saskia Sassen ↗Her rigorous analysis dissects the intricate dynamics of global cities as nodes of economic and political power, and the social inequalities they engender.Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
• Jan Gehl ↗A tireless advocate for cities designed for people, his influence has reshaped urban spaces worldwide towards walkability, public life, and human-scale design.Founding Partner, Gehl Architects; Professor Emeritus, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
• Arjun Appadurai ↗His theories on global cultural flows and the production of locality offer critical lenses through which to understand contemporary urban transformations and their social implications.Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University

Glossary

• CommuteA commute is the regular journey a person makes between their home and their workplace, school, or another regular destination. It often involves travelling a certain distance, usually daily. For example, taking the bus for 45 minutes every morning to get from your home to school is your daily commute.
• InfrastructureInfrastructure refers to the basic physical systems and structures that a city or country needs to function, like roads, bridges, electricity grids, water pipes, and public transport. These systems support daily life and economic activity. For example, the metro lines, flyovers, and power stations in your city are all part of its infrastructure, helping people get around and have electricity.
• MigrationMigration is when people move from one place to another to live, either within the same country or to a different country. This movement can be for reasons like finding better jobs, education, or safety. For example, a family might migrate from their village to a city like Bengaluru because the parents found better job opportunities there.
• Population DensityPopulation density measures how many people live in a specific area, like per square kilometer or square mile. A high population density means many people are packed into a small space. For example, a busy market street has a very high population density because many people are walking and shopping in a small area, while a quiet village road has a low population density.
• Public SpaceA public space is any area in a city or town that is open and accessible to everyone, like parks, plazas, sidewalks, or public libraries. These places are meant for people to gather, relax, or move through freely. For example, the local park where you play cricket or the main market square where people meet are public spaces.
• Rural AreaA rural area is the countryside, where fewer people live, and there are often more farms, open spaces, and natural landscapes than buildings and businesses. It's the opposite of a city. For example, a small village surrounded by fields where most people are farmers is a rural area.
• SlumA slum is a part of a city where many people live in very poor, crowded, and often unsafe housing, usually lacking basic services like clean water, proper sanitation, or electricity. These areas often develop when cities grow very quickly without enough affordable housing. For example, some parts of a big city might have houses built very close together with temporary materials, and many families share one public tap for water; this would be considered a slum.
• SuburbsSuburbs are residential areas located just outside the main part of a city, often with more open space and fewer tall buildings than the city center. People often live in suburbs and commute to work or school in the city. For example, many families might choose to live in a suburb like Gurugram or Noida because it's quieter and has more space, even if they work in central Delhi.
• Urban Area (City)An urban area, often called a city or town, is a place where many people live close together, usually with lots of buildings, businesses, and services. It's different from the countryside because it's densely populated and developed. For example, Delhi is a large urban area with millions of people, tall buildings, and many different kinds of shops and offices.
• UrbanisationUrbanisation is when more and more people move from the countryside to live in cities and towns, causing these urban areas to grow bigger. It's the process of a society becoming more city-focused. For example, when many families from villages move to Mumbai to find jobs, Mumbai experiences urbanisation as its population and size increase.

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Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Infectious Disease & Pandemics Health

  Here's a shock: until about 1900, big cities killed more people than they birthed. They were so crammed and disease-ridden that they only grew by constantly pulling in fresh newcomers from the countryside. The city was basically running on a nonstop transfusion of village blood.

• Migration & Refugees Global Risks

  A refugee camp called Dadaab was meant to be temporary. Thirty years later it has markets, neighborhoods, and kids who were born and grew up there, it's a city now. 'Emergency' shelters have a habit of quietly hardening into permanent towns, because nothing is more permanent than something everyone calls temporary.

• Homeostasis Health

  Double an animal's size and it needs only about 1.85 times the blood vessels, not double, because big bodies run more efficiently. Astonishingly, the same math holds for cities: double a city's population and its roads, pipes, and cables grow only about 1.85 times. A giant city is efficient in exactly the way a giant elephant is, both following one hidden rule of scale.

• Complexity & Emergence Science

  Double a city's size and you don't just get double the inventions, wages, and crime. You get about 2.15 times as much. Cities follow a strange math rule where bigger means more of everything per person, both the genius and the danger. Cramming people together somehow multiplies what they produce.