World Cities

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World Cities
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What is a city?

• This is always a tricky definition and not very
  straight forward
• Is it based on population?
• Is it based on what is in the city?
• Does it have to have a cathedral? (a really
  common misconception!)

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Different types of City

• Super city population over 5 million
• Megacity population over 10 million
• World city are cities of power based on trade,
  political strength, innovation and communications
• Do you have to be a megacity to be a world city?

New York and Tokyo are both megacities and world
cities. But what about London? It is a super city
(not mega) but many people consider it to be the
worlds most important city because of its
connections through commerce, trade, service
provision and travel flows just to name a few
factors
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World cities are connected to other places all
over the world. However the places that they are
connected to are not random, but are
strategically located either for travel reasons,
or for economic and political reasons. Places
that are not connected to world cities (or even
secondary cities) could be left out of the
globalised world in a number of different ways
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What can maps like this tell us about different
cities around the world and their connections?
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How are cities growing

• There are 2 main processes
• The first is internal growth (natural increase).
  This happens because city dwellers (particularly
  in developing countries) have high birth rates
• The second is those who move to the cities from
  the countryside. These tend to be young, fertile
  people who cause this high birth rate within
  cities

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Urban Growth

• The poorest parts of the world have become the
  fastest growing, with migration dominating this
  growth
• In some countries, this growth can be as much as
  6 8 with much of this growth in slums
• By 2020 the amount of people living in slums
  around the world will reach between 1.3 1.4
  billion

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Rural to Urban Migration

• Pull factors
• Jobs
• Health care
• Education
• Safety
• Housing
• Bright lights

• Push factors
• Poverty
• Conflict
• Natural disasters
• Crop failure
• Land subdivision

Town
Rural areas
Small towns
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Why do rural dwellers migrate?

• Most people who migrate to urban slums are not
  moving blindly (unless its through war or a
  natural disaster)
• People are well aware of the problems living of
  living in the city as they will have likely made
  arrangements for accommodation and jobs with
  family or friends
• Despite the living conditions, they know that in
  the long run their prospects are better than in
  the rural area

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Problems created by urban rural migration

• Strain on services e.g. education, transport
  health care
• Water supply
• Food
• Job supply
• Housing provision
• Next lesson we are going to look at what is being
  done to solve this!

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Urban Processes

• Many developing cities are continuing to grow
  though a number of processes
• Urban sprawl Urban areas growing outwards in an
  uncontrollable way. In the developing world this
  results in slums
• Suburbanisation The wealthy choosing to live on
  the city edge to escape poverty, crime,
  congestion and pollution in the city centre. A
  new trend is the gated community

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In the developed world

• Counter urbanisation Movement of people out of
  the cities and into rural areas
• Re-urbanisation This is the regeneration of
  urban areas that have declined over previous year

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Mumbai An example of a rapidly urbanising
megacity

• Commercial capital of India
• Home of Bollywood
• Seen as the technological hub of India
• Some rents here are more expensive than in London
  and New York

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A city of contrasts