state of the world's cities 2012/2013 - United Nations Sustainable ...

Innovating to Support the Transition to the City of the 21st Centuryexceptions, modern urban planning has failed to integratethe urban poor in the socioeconomic fabric of the city.As an expert in Bangalore put it, “The poor have surviveddespite master planning.” 30 Understood primarily as atechnical tool, planning has been unable to address thepower relations that have been at work to the detriment ofthe great majorities of urban populations. Planning has alsoproved unable to prevent environmental degradation or theformation of slums, and is notable for serious shortcomingsin terms of transport and urban mobility.Conceived as a comprehensive, long-term strategy,a master plan – the quintessence of modern planning –typically represents an ideal end-state for a particular citywith serious gaps between the initial vision and actualresults. This has ensued in what a scholar in 1996 called“the dark side of planning” 31 , something an expert inMontevideo has referred to as “urban plans that are at oddswith the notion of prosperity.” 32The shortcomings of modern urban planning havetriggered significant reform since the 1980s and 1990s, in aneffort to move away from comprehensive plans, top-downdecision-making and wide-ranging regulation. 33 A moreflexible approach was adopted to improve conditions incities, through ‘strategic planning’ and other methods thatare more pragmatic, incremental and typically focused on‘getting things done’. However, too many ‘strategic urbanplans’ have effectively imposed an entrepreneurial view ofthe city, promoting mostly economic prosperity and oftenturning into marketing gimmicks in all but name, completewith oversized architectural designs and mega-developments.In emerging or developing countries, these initiativestypically favour the gentrification of entire areas and, at times,massive displacement in order to make room for highways,skyscrapers, luxury compounds, shopping malls, etc., at theexpense of the habitat and livelihoods of the poor. 34UN-Habitat policy analysis in 50 cities in Asia, Africa,Latin America and the Arab States (2011) shows that upto 80 per cent of localexperts believe that thebenefits of economicfact Whateverthe planning prosperity mainly serve theapproach, powerfulinterests of the wealthy andpolitical and economic politicians (a view sharedinterests keep interferingby up to 90 per cent ofwith the design andAfrican experts). Throughimplementation ofstrategic plans andpolitical influence, briberythe pursuit of urban and corruption, theseprosperity for all.powerful interest groupsfactFrom Asia to Africa to Latin America, ‘master’,‘blueprint’ and layout plans have had similar,harmful consequences in countless numbers of cities: spatialsegregation, social exclusion, excessive mobility needs andconsumption of energy, together with poor regard for thepotential economies of scale and agglomeration that any citycan offer. 29manage to distort urban plans, dodge spatial or legal rules,reduce the production of public goods and manipulatethe power of eminent domain; in the process theycapture unfair shares of a city’s potential, resources andprosperity to the detriment of large, poor majorities ofurban populations.The New Urbanism Movement of the early 1980sbroke with conventional master-planning and introduceda number of welcome innovations: liveable, pedestrianfriendlycities, dense neighbourhoods with mixes ofhousing and job-creating commercial and business sites,together with mixed land uses having a diversity ofbuildings in terms of style, size, price and function – allof this with a strong focus on local communities. 35 For allthese fresh efforts, though, a conventional approach tourban development has remained dominant to this day.In developing and emerging countries alike, cities are stillhostages to a mix of homogeneous forms or functions onthe one hand, and spatial /social segregation on the otherhand. Urban areas continue to expand across endlessperipheries, with serious, pervasive problems of trafficcongestion, enhancing the dependence on motor vehiclesand intensive use of expensive fossil fuels. This dominanttype of city is detrimental to the built heritage and theenvironment, includingsurrounding agriculturalland, as well as biodiversity.Today, theThis is the pattern whichfact GS20CUN-Habitat refers to asmodel appears to bethe “Global Standardpredominant acrossUrbanization Modelthe world, beingof the 20th Century”largely driven by land(GS20C), 36 whichspeculation and realestate interests thatprivileges individualism,build cities according toconsumerism, newfinancial and economic(artificial) values andparameters oftenlifestyles, excessive mobility radically at odds withand privatization of theshared prosperity. 37public space.109