Getting Past Megacities: How Peri-Urban Has Become the New City Center
Half of the world’s seven billion people currently live in cities, one billion of them in informal settlements; the United Nations projects that the global urban population will expand to as many as five billion over the next two decades. As a result of failing rural economies, conflicts, material inequalities, gentrification, and other urban development programs, people are moving into, out of, and through cities in search of profit, protection, and passage elsewhere.
Overview
Half of the world’s seven billion people currently live in cities, one billion of them in informal settlements; the United Nations projects that the global urban population will expand to as many as five billion over the next two decades. As a result of failing rural economies, conflicts, material inequalities, gentrification, and other urban development programs, people are moving into, out of, and through cities in search of profit, protection, and passage elsewhere. Once sparsely occupied peri-urban areas have become stations and destinations for people moving out of the city and those first coming to it. These peri-urban zones are where the future of cities – their opportunities and deprivation – lie. Yet we know little about these peripheral areas. Indeed, understanding their unique, often hybrid, socio-economic and political dynamics is central to achieving equitable growth, environmental sustainability, and political stability.
Three urban experts participated in a discussion, drawing from experiences In Africa, Asia, and Latin America on issues paramount to sustainable urbanization: land tenure, municipal finance, and citizen security.
Photo Credits: "Favela no de Rio," courtesy Flickr user kevin.j
Speakers
Edesio Fernandes
Jeremy Gorelick
Daniel K.B. Inkoom
Caroline Wanjiku Kihato
Visiting Senior Researcher, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Adnan Morshed
Hosted By
Urban Sustainability Laboratory
Since 1991, the Urban Sustainability Laboratory has advanced solutions to urban challenges—such as poverty, exclusion, insecurity, and environmental degradation—by promoting evidence-based research to support sustainable, equitable and peaceful cities. Read more
Indo-Pacific Program
The Indo-Pacific Program promotes policy debate and intellectual discussions on US interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region. Read more
Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
Africa Program
The Africa Program works to address the most critical issues facing Africa and US-Africa relations, build mutually beneficial US-Africa relations, and enhance knowledge and understanding about Africa in the United States. The Program achieves its mission through in-depth research and analyses, public discussion, working groups, and briefings that bring together policymakers, practitioners, and subject matter experts to analyze and offer practical options for tackling key challenges in Africa and in US-Africa relations. Read more
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