The future of urban societies

We live in a city now – more than 50 % of us – and the percentage is increasing fast.

There will be more and more cities, and they will be bigger and bigger. In many countries the movement towards cities is slow – e.g. Norway, England – where big movements took place many years ago, but is still happening. In other places – China, India – there is huge movements off the land into the cities, and all in all there is a strong tendency toward urbanization. The biggest cities now has tens of millions of inhabitants.

The problem of slums is huge in many places, the conditions are not good, infrastructure  like clean water, drains and sewage, electricity is not so good.

So the solution is not to move people back to where they came from, but to improve cities, make them into livable, even excellent places to be.

There is much good thinking about this taking place, and practices will surely follow.

There are many factors involved, here are some:

  • There may be an optimal size for a city, where strains are low, where people are comfortable and can know their city. May be this size is about 1 million people? Or less? Or 5 million?
  • Small scale production should be introduced into cities reducing the need for transportation, storage and giving jobs. For food this could be made more fresh based on day to day consumption, there should be a lot of local production of clothes, mechanical, shoemaking, other handicrafts.
  • Plots and roofs should be made available for small scale agriculture giving fresh fruit and vegetables all the time. Greenhousing should be a normal practice. Communal food gardens should be found.
  • Research and innovation in new forms should take place utilizing the advantages of humans being close to each other.
  • Distribution systems must be optimized, integrating producers locally and far away.
  • Transport systems for goods and people should be tightly controlled, traffic reduced, people should live near where they work, public transport the norm.
  • Social development should take place to develop community feeling and practices, to make people know each other, to function well together.
  • Slums should systematically be removed.
  • Education should be modernised, to let people decide for themselves, more practical towards how you fend for yourself, create small businesses, to be an artist, craftsman, programmer, city farmer or whatever you want.
  • New and more participatory forms of local democracy should be tested out, why must we always accept what central government wants?
  • Develop base stations for activity in production, learning, sports, entertainment … so that it is easy to see what is going on, what is possible, who can be contacted.
  • The role of the sexes should be normalized based on equality principles, and children should be made active participants in the city’s activities as part of their education.
  • Housing including water, heating, power should be tightly integrated and coordinated to increase efficiency, to benefit from living close together.
  • The crime, violence should be eradicated, poverty removed, equality made a principle, drug policy normalized.
  • Noise and commotion must be taken away – we must have a quiet city.
  • Environmental issues should be adressed clearly, waste control a necessity, recirculation a basic practice taking place in the city.
  • Open houses, communal activities are desirable.
  • City planning should be integrated based on holistic principles – you must be able to find it all near you.
  • Green areas, playgrounds should be small scale and found in many places, creating green lungs and diversity, encouraging participation from all.

This also means the end of suburbia which is a thoroughly wasteful way of running societies. The choice is rural or urban, and both will be good.

So let us do it – let us start.

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One Response to “The future of urban societies”

  1. shane says:

    esp@waterline.hearer” rel=”nofollow”>.…

    thanks for information….

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