Planetary Urbanisation with or without Cities

Abstract

In order to analyse the different kinds of global urbanization and to explore the challenge beneath it, the author describes the three phases of City History. The first city grew from the farming surplus and their destiny was tied to the farming economy. The rise of the capitalism in 16th century call for a new era. The City became mainly places of market trade. The industrial revolution was the third milestone, which we are just leaving now entering in the globalization. The author lists the five urban shapes: the slum, the megapolis, the world-sized city, the gated community, and the small and medium city. He also notices the existence of diffusing urban base on each continent. The challenges are numerous and highly tangled. The author suggests to combine the four main questions that every human being asks themselves about, the social question, the urban question, the knowledge question and the environmental question. I then conclude by opening a few leads for an ecological urbanization on various scales.