Planning: The millennial prospect

Abstract

In the quarter century since 1975, though the environmental agenda has remained in the foreground, we have seen the arrival of a new set of concerns: above all globalisa­tion, the spectacular deconstruction of the old manufacturing and goods-handling economy in many cities, and the arrival of a new knowledge economy and networked society. Our concern everywhere, in city after city, has been to regenerate decaying urban economies by injecting new activities. Left and right have disagreed about the precise remedy, but those disagreements are themselves now part of history: the old economy is largely gone, and no one expects its return. The problem is that the formal or modem sector is too often struggling to survive, and too often giving up the battle. It cannot compete, for multiple reasons: under-education, poor infrastructure, lack of credit and failure to access global markets. So we find cities that lack a formal eco­nomic base, cities in which the great majority of people live in informal slums and eke out an existence in the informal economy.