cities

Congestion and pressure on resources: Agglomeration can lead to higher levels of congestion, undue
pressure on infrastructure, such as housing, transportation networks, water, sanitation and electricity,
as well as excess demands on natural resources, such as water supply and air quality.
Increased poverty: In the developing world, successful cities attract many migrants (from rural areas
and less prosperous, smaller cities and towns) seeking work and a better quality of life. The flow of
people to large cities inevitably increases poverty, as few arrive with the skills and resources necessary
to compete in urban labour markets. These migrants tend to swell the ranks of the poor and
unemployed that congregate in overcrowded living spaces.
A city may, therefore, be both productive and inclusive, yet still have poverty, inequality and slums.
“Cities aren’t full of poor people because cities make people poor, but because cities attract poor
people with the prospect of improving their lot in life” (Glaeser, 2011: 70).
What a successful and inclusive city does is to enable poor people to develop pathways out of poverty
through providing quality basic services (e.g. water, sanitation, healthcare and education) and
facilitating decent jobs and livelihood opportunities for the less skilled, so that poor families are able
to access income and opportunity. Such a city builds common spaces and flows between these spaces
that encourage people from different communities to meet and mingle in ways that build a common
city identity and understanding. This strengthens social coherence and enhances city resilience in an
increasingly uncertain world.
3
Resilient city economies
Resilient cities can adapt and transform in the face of increasing social, economic and environmental
change that accompanies the relentless push to urbanise in a globalised world (Seeliger and Turok,
2013). The way in which these cities function can enable the people living and working there –
particularly the poor and vulnerable – to survive and thrive, no matter what the stresses or shocks
encountered (Rockefeller Foundation and Arup, 2014). Resilience thinking appreciates that cities are
complex and dynamic urban systems that operate at different scales, from beyond city boundaries and
the city level itself, to the community, neighbourhood and even household level. The relationships
between these levels are complex and shifting (Chelleri, 2010). There are different perspectives on
city resilience: disaster and risk management approaches advocate bounce-back resilience, whereby
cities are able to maintain basic city structures and functioning after disruptive or catastrophic events;
bounce-forward or transformative resilience considers disruptive events or disasters as opportunities to
bring about change, adapting and transforming city systems so that they are better able to manage or
reduce the impact of the chronic stresses and shocks. Cities have the opportunity to reshape
themselves, to revitalise, regenerate and become more inclusive (Seeliger and Turok, 2013).
PRODUCTIVE CITIES 87