The New Urban Crisis

Overall Verdict: ★ ★ ★ 

Why this book?
As Richard Florida says repeatedly with compulsion, we are experiencing a New Urban Crisis. This book is, of course, just one perspective but many of the arguments made and issues discussed are ones that can be forgotten or oversimplified in the teaching of urban areas and urbanisation. Thus, I wanted to read this for the betterment of my subject knowledge and to consider urbanisation with a more critical eye and that has certainly been achieved!

Richard Florida explains the five dimensions that he believes encompass the New Urban Crisis:
1.     There is a deep and growing economic gap between a small number of ‘superstar cities’ and ‘knowledge hubs’ compared to other cities.
2.     These ‘superstar cities’ face increasingly unaffordable house prices and staggering levels of inequality.
3.     This growing inequality needs to be considered in a broader sense in terms of the segregation and ‘sorting’ that is taking place within virtually every city and metro area.
4.     There is a growing crisis in the suburbs where poverty, insecurity and crime are mounting and economic and racial segregation are growing deeper.
5.     Urbanisation in the developing world is no longer bringing the assumed economic growth and increased standard of living.

Reflecting on my teaching of urbanisation at both GCSE and A-Level in particular, some initial thoughts spring to mind:

• Is there a danger that we present urbanisation as inherently good? That it will always bring an increased standard of living for all?

• At A-Level, do we question this narrative enough? Do we consider how, in the developing world, assumptions of urbanisation leading to economic growth may need to be challenged in the 21st century?

• Is there a danger that we oversimplify the discussion about change to cities over time? For example, I know I am guilty of teaching that moving to the suburbs is a ‘good thing’ for more green space, more open space and a larger dwelling. Do we need to discuss the growing poverty of the suburbs and consider why this is happening?

For teachers:
Although repetitive at points and very US-centric, this book abounds with extended quotes that are useful for teaching about urbanisation, gentrification and inequality. A few examples are given below.

For teaching successful places (as part of the Regenerating Places topic of the Edexcel A-Level), Richard Florida made me reflect on what it is that contributes to ‘success’ in the 21st century. Reading this book will enable me to teach this section with renewed focus in future.

”The cities and the larger metropolitan areas that were most successful economically, I argued further, were those that excelled at what I called the ‘3 Ts of economic development’: technology, talent and tolerance. They had clusters of technology industry; they had great school systems and research universities that produced talent; and they were open-minded and tolerant, which allowed them to attract and retain talent regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.” (Introduction)

As above, something to consider is the changing landscape of the suburbs- both in the USA and the UK. Depending on the content of your A-Level course, this might be something worthy of discussion:

”As the rich flock back to great cities, the poor and the middle class are pushed out into the suburbs. And this displacement is occurring alarmingly fast. Nearly all poverty in London was once in the urban centre. In 2000, slightly more people in poverty were in Inner London, but by 2013 a clear majority of the poor were in Outer London. Today, 60% of poverty in greater London is in suburban areas of Outer London, where 1.25 million people live in impoverished conditions compared to 890,000 in Inner London.” (p.8)

Finally, and perhaps most of interest to me, was the discussion of urbanisation in the developing world and the ‘troubling phenomenon of urbanisation without growth’. This is certainly something that cannot be omitted from any discussion of urbanisation at A-Level:

“The urban optimists believe that urbanization will ultimately bring economic growth, rising living standards, and a growing middle class to these places, just like it did for the United States, Europe, Japan, and, more recently, China. Cities, after all, have historically driven the development of national economies. But this connection between urbanization and a rising standard of living has broken down in many of the most rapidly urbanizing areas of the world.” (p.8-9)