©
James Nachtwey/Magnum, Paris
The big city or bust
Surviving the South’s urban revolution
The number of
people living in cities has doubled since 1975 and will double again between now
and the year 2015. This unprecedented urban revolution, which mainly affects the
Third World, is not just a question of numbers. The appearance, organization and
even the function of cities have been revolutionized. Traditionally, cities have
been places of meeting and exchange, but now they are splitting up into enclaves
divided by walls built by the well-off and by social and ethnic barriers. In this
situation, city authorities are often powerless or acquiescent (see pages 18 to 21).
In Lagos (Nigeria), ingenuity and determination are the key to survival (pages
22 to 25).
Millions of inhabitants of Jakarta (Indonesia) have had to rebuild their lives after
being evicted from their homes because of property speculation (pages 26 to 28). On the other hand, the authorities
in Shanghai seem to be coping with an influx of four million “temporary” residents,
who are however only accepted on sufferance (pages 32 to 35). Brasilia (Brazil) bristles with iron railings
that protect people’s privacy, as Brazilian sociologist Licia Valladares explains
(pages
29 to 31).
Jorge Wilheim, one of the organizers of the United Nations Habitat II conference
(Istanbul, 1996) puts these issues in a broader context of place and time. Cities,
and thus our civilization, he predicts, will be shaped by the ongoing phenomenon
of globalization (page
36).
