STATE OF THE WORLD'S CITIES 2012/2013 Prosperity

State of the World’s Cities 2012/2013
linkages among them.
When equity Its absence will will
POLICy is embedded have the reverse effect,
in urban development
compounding any existing
strategies, efficiency is
enhanced, asset utilization
biases, or dysfunctions
becomes optimal,
already hindering
productivity improves, social prosperity.
cohesion is strengthened,
Undoubtedly, some
and both sustainability and cities have demonstrated a
resilience are enhanced.
capacity to stimulate growth
and prosperity even in the
absence of equity. However,
as has become amply evident in the past three decades,
such prosperity, coupled with uneven distribution, remains
narrowly confined and is unsustainable. Conversely, cities
that have built equity into their local development strategies
are better placed for enhanced prosperity.
Equity reduces alienation and exclusion, paving the
way for empowerment and engagement of all social groups,
and for the realization of the full potential of the entire
population. Indeed, cities that have removed impediments
to the full engagement of women, youths and even the
Box 2.4.2
Spatial divisions exacerbate inequality
Spatial inequalities are not only a forerunner of social and
economic divisions; these in turn cause further inequalities and
different forms of exclusion and marginalization. In Jordan’s
capital, for instance, 97 per cent of households in Western
Amman have computers while in Eastern Amman the proportion
is no more than eight per cent. Not surprisingly, in Western
Amman more than 50 per cent of males and 20 per cent of
females earn more than USD1,400 monthly, compared with only
two per cent for males and less than one per cent for females in
Eastern Amman. 7
The urban divide appears to widen with higher degrees of
economic prosperity; at least this is the perception of populations
and local experts. In Bangalore, where specialisation in computer
technologies has brought a fair amount of economic prosperity,
a local expert remarked that “while quality of life is comfortable
for ‘elite Bangalore’, it is not so for the ‘other Bangalore’ which
comprises the majority of the population”. 8 In São Paulo, even
as municipal authorities strive to integrate favelas, informal
settlements and rehabilitated urban neighbourhoods into a more
inclusive city, wealthy Paulistanos resist the process and gravitate
to more exclusive enclaves. The result is what has been dubbed
a ‘city of walls’ where any visible prosperity appears to be largely
monopolised by the wealthy. In Lusaka, a local expert reports
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elderly have invariably enhanced overall prosperity.
Equity is not simply a normative concern, related to
issues of fairness and justice, important as these may be. It is
a material factor which directly impinges on the process of
social and material sustenance. In fact, through removal of
‘unfreedoms’, and with the attendant broadening of choices
and opportunities, equity enhances the city’s transformative
capacity while also promoting identity and agency among
the population.
The social process that comes with the opportunities
made available to all through public goods like quality
education and skills, enables the population to remain
engaged and to stake a claim on the city. In this respect, the
way a city shapes, and is in turn shaped by, its population,
will largely depend on whether urban systems provide all
residents with equal opportunities for development and the
ability to exert agency.
Inequity is inefficient from an economic perspective. As
stressed by Sen, “the primitiveness of social developments
(such as widespread illiteracy, malnutrition, lack of health
facilities and medical networks) is a barrier to the full
realisation of the benefits of participatory growth and
that ”increasing degrees of exclusion are reappearing in the
city, especially with the new infrastructure under development.
Segregation along racial lines is re-emerging.” 9 In Dubai, as in
some other Gulf cities, the gap between nationals and nonnationals
(access to schooling, public hospitals, health insurance,
adequate and affordable housing, labour grievances and rights) is
unequal in the extreme.
Research shows that when combined, the physical and social
divisions between rich and poor neighbourhoods can generate
further exclusion and marginalization, especially when the
poor are confined to farther neighbourhoods with inadequate
accessibility. The underprivileged people living in these ‘lost’
areas suffer from a triple jeopardy: long distances, high transport
costs and excessive commuting times. This turns into a genuine
“spatial poverty trap” that conspires against shared prosperity
through restrictions on jobs, compounding gender differences,
limiting social interactions and reducing social capital, increasing
the likelihood of crime and violence, with worsening living
standards as a result. 10 The spatial inequalities so visible in
so many cities are also the outcome of broader and deeply
entrenched processes of unplanned urban development, poor
governance and institutionalized exclusion and marginalisation of
specific groups.