Humanity seems to have worked itself up into something of a self-esteem problem. In academia, the media, even in popular culture itself, population has become a word to strike fear into the hearts of thinking people around the world, and to connote a problem best left to others. Population always seems to be paired with such laden terms as anxiety, fears, crush and, of course, over-. But population opportunity? Rarely.
This has been going on for a while, of course. But this year, a slight shift can be seen. Welcome to 2008, by the end of which, for the first time in the history of humanity, more people will be living in urban than in rural areas. The news does not appear to be good. The World Bank's "Urbanization in India" is currently offering the following list of important factors to consider: Poor local governance, weak finances, inappropriate planning, critical infrastructure shortages, and rapidly deteriorating environment. Likewise, at the upcoming fourth World Urban Forum (taking place in Nanjing, China, in November), the 2008 State of the World's Cities Report will be launched, focusing on four areas: spatial disparities, socio-economic inequality, environmental degradation, and cultural diversity and historical heritage. Only the last sounds mildly uplifting. According to the discourse, cities are not only taking over, encroaching on and gobbling up the world's pristine wilderness – they're also ruining the lives of those who live in them!
Indeed, much of what is ostensibly frightening about population 'concerns' can easily be transferred directly onto the idea of urban areas in general. Say the word 'urban' to a cross-section of the world's populace today, and undoubtedly the first reaction will be an image of either concrete or of people. For being such a ubiquitous material, especially in Southasia, no one really has much positive to say about grey, unobtrusive concrete. Where does this leave larger thoughts about the cities in which we live?
Well, that leaves us with the other side of that binary – people. Far from the common perception of the de-humanising aspect of urbanisation – of its sterility, its ostensibly poisonous nature – the fact is that urbanisation is specifically the process of humans making their environment more rather than less human. You can have a city without people, of course, but it is generally the stuff of post-catastrophe science fiction. Meanwhile, the more people you have, the more interactions and more – and more diverse – culture. It helps to appreciate cities, howsoever large, if you can bring yourself to think of a population of, say, 12 million, as 12 million individuals.