INCREMENTAL URBANIZATION
- Change that happens little-by-little
- Dominant pace of urbanization
INSTANT URBANIZATION
- Change happens rapidly through large scale urban transformation
- Tied to government ambitions, global inancial markets
- Social and material processes of change
- Transformation from rural to urban
SPECTACULAR URBANISM
- Creation of a “global sense of place”
- How we experience the city
DUBAI
- A semi-autonomous emirate within the United Arab Emirates.
- UAE is oil-rich and depends heavily on foreign workers to run its economy.
- Emirates govern the UAE through the Federal Supreme Council.
- Authoritarian state led by hereditary rulers.
DUBAI ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
- Little oil within Dubai’s boundaries.
- Historically a port city and now a major stop for international container shipping, banking, and finance.
- Large-scale real estate development projects are key to the city’s economic growth strategy.
LEGAL REFORMS TO SPUR DEVELOPMENT in DUBAI
- Dubai introduced legal reforms to boost real estate investment
- Speculative real estate investment has fueled urban development in Dubai
the problem with focusing solely on real estate development in Dubai
- Mega-projects have meant significant debt that makes Dubai vulnerable to economic downturns
explain how Instant urbanization isn’t a “new” phenomenon
- New cities in industrial Europe (e.g. the Garden Cities movement)
- Often linked to utopian visions of what cities can be
POST-INDEPENDENCE CITY-BUILDING
Post-WWII independence movements bring a new interest in city-building in emerging states
New cities can showcase national ambition and a new identify
CHANDIGARH
Capital city of Punjab and Haryana, commissioned following the partitioning of India.
One of the first planned cities in India post-independence.
Envisioned as a modern regional capital and home to Sikh and Hindu people leaving newly formed Pakistan
who master planned Chandigarh city
Master planned by Le Corbusier.
THE SYMBOLISM OF BRASILIA AND CHANDIGARH
New master planned cities in post-colonial countries.
Representative of modernist design and urban planning ideas from Europe and North America.
Created as a response to perceived problems of urban areas in the post-war period.
Symbolic of nation-building aspirations of new countries.
how are Contemporary new cities also being built as a response to perceived urban problems?
- Cities that can leapfrog urban issues like sprawl, pollution, housing shortages
- Cities that can embody a new post-colonial national identity
New cities today have which important differences?
- Key designers and builders are from countries in the Global South
- New networks of expertise have emerged
- New models have emerged that reflect local architectural heritage
how were mid-20th century cities implemented?
as government projects
how were new cities implemented today?
through privatization of public spaces (e.g. financing, development process).
New cities today often have a corporate structure.
INSTANT URBANIZATION AND THE FIRE SECTORS
- Deregulation of global finance has driven processes of instant urbanization.
- Value of new developments can be packaged as financial instruments and sold to raise building funds.
- Oriented to attracting private sector investment (e.g. REITs, pension funds, private equity groups).
Financialization in urbanization
Creation of new financial instruments and entities to extract value from land
MEGA-PROJECTS CREATE BIG LABOR DEMAND
how?
- Construction is one of the largest employers around the world.
- Newly arrived urban migrants are a bit source of labor for the construction sector.
- Labor force is majority male, but not exclusively so. Women tend to be over-represented in the lowest-paid roles.
mega projects can also facilitate land-grabbing
true or false
true
land-grabbing
the acquisition of large pieces of property or land by companies, governments, or individuals
when does land-grabbing usually happen?
Often happens in informal settlements and with support from government
NATALIE KOCH ON NEW SPECTACULAR CITIES
- Often located in non-democratic and resource-rich states
- Developed with strong state planning
- Include lavish landscapes and mega-events
- Intended to communicate prosperity and state benevolence
