Welcome To The Urban Revolution: How Cities Are Changing The World
By Jeb Brugmann
Published by Harper Collins,
Pages: 330: Rs 399
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Jeb Brugmann need only visit Mumbai to see everything he has written in his book spring to life. Indeed, the author has spent some time in Mumbai, categorising it as a City in Crisis. And what better illustration of that than to watch the hysteria over a beautiful new sea link that connects two parts of the city but solves no problems, neither for those who prefer to drive to work nor for the majority who depend entirely on public transport. The City of Crisis remains in permanent gridlock.
In a book that is packed with anecdotal and well-researched material on cities around the world, from China to South America, Brugmann has done a masterly job in setting forth a convincing argument about the inevitability of urbanization — how this is a good thing but how it could result in disaster if the direction most cities are taking does not change drastically.
Brugmann makes several interesting propositions. The first is an obvious one, that the process of “globalisation” has resulted in connections between diverse parts of the world through cities and the urban advantage they have. Thus, Bangalore could leverage its urban advantage of being a city that hosted innumerable scientific institutions in previous decades to become the hub of the IT industry not just for India but connecting India to the world. He defines urban advantage as economies of density, scale, association and extension.
The reasons cities play this particular role in the emerging global urban revolution is because density increases their efficiency, scale increases the volume of any particular opportunity, association allows user groups to extend this to other cities and finally extension, or “the ability to link the unique economic advantage of one city with those of other cities” benefits all.
Through stories of individuals, Brugmann traces the role of migration in the building of major cities around the world and how chain migration, that is migration of kin and associates who build localities or entire cities, is an integral part of the urban advantage of many cities.
An interesting chapter, in the light of the recent developments in Iran, is ‘Anatomy Of The Urban Revolution’ where Brugmann writes of how the Shah of Iran’s push to accelerate urbanisation actually laid the foundations for the revolution that overthrew his regime. He failed to understand the demand for democratic space from the merchants who ran the bazaars as well as students, trade unions and clergy and the new urban class consisting of rural migrants and urban professionals. All these groups ultimately came together to oppose his repressive rule. In a sense, the current rulers of Iran also seem to have failed to understand the special circumstances that forge urban identities and that ultimately come to the boil if repressed.
 Jeb Brugmann is a leading practitioner and thinker on strategy and the process of innovation. For 25 years, he has been devising solutions to help local communities access the benefits of globalisation, and to help global organisations engage in local communities and markets. He focuses on the contribution of innovation at the micro-level of the locality, business model, or consumer cluster to achieve macro-level strategy objectives. |
The most interesting part of this fascinating account of the urban revolution is Brugmann’s assessment of the role of migrants in building cities. Predictably, he has chosen Dharavi to illustrate this. Brugmann argues that Dharavi cannot be called a slum any longer, that it has a population equivalent to Nashville, Edmonton, Gdansk or Leeds and that its GDP even if lower is more diverse and vibrant than most Western cities. He prefers to think of Dharavi as a “city system”, something those planning for Dharavi’s redevelopment entirely fail to appreciate.
By engaging with the people of Dharavi, Brugmann has understood and appreciated their crucial role in building up this unique city system, the urban form they have devised to deal with a reality where basic services are lacking, and the enterprise that has resulted in an array of industries, including export-oriented ones, which continue to grow. Dharavi has all the four components of what Brugmann has termed urban advantage: density, scale, association and extension. The profitability of Dharavi’s enterprises, he suggests, is the result of a “chain of cost advantages that is unique to Dharavi’s unplanned, yet inarguably designed, development by its migrant settlers from a slum into a full-fledged city.”
The author had come up with three categories to describe the various challenges facing urbanisation around the world. The first is Cities of Crisis like Mumbai or Detroit. In such cities, all aspects of life are dominated by the battle between large competing alliances. The result is perpetual crisis as is evident in Mumbai.
The second category is the Great Opportunities City, like Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. There is no lack of funds to build such cities, but there is a singular lack of imagination. As a result, they imitate what they believe are “global” models of development but fail to appreciate and build on their unique urban advantage and history.
The third is the Strategic City. These, Brugmann believes, hold the answers. Cities like Curitiba in Brazil, or Chicago or Barcelona. Each of these cities has demonstrated a special feature of urban growth and planning, whether it is urban transport or open spaces or reviving run-down neighbourhoods. But more than the particulars of what they have devised, it is the approach towards urban growth and planning that holds a lesson. It deviates entirely from the master plan model that is accepted without question throughout the world to one that allows incremental and organic planning and growth where the needs of people, and of the environment, are primary.
In an ideal world, voices like those of Brugmann would be heeded. Sadly, what prevails today particularly in India’s mega cities is exactly the opposite of what he so wisely recommends.
Kalpana Sharma is a Mumbai-based independent journalist and author of “Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia’s Largest Slum”.
A version of this review was published in the Businessworld issue dated 21-27 July 2009
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