The prospect of cities
John Friedman

In essays as engaging as they are informative, a leading figure in urban planning and geography broadly surveys the complex terrain of global urbanization. Unique in its scope and its prospective view of city-regions as substantially autonomous “quasi-city-states,” this book offers an unprecedented look at the global urban future, focusing on models of development, transnational migration, citizenship, representation, and the good city as a utopian construct.

Beginning with an overview of global urbanization patterns-particularly the entropic forces that deepen poverty, increase violence, and discourage democratic life in peripheral areas-The Prospect of Cities goes on to address specific contemporary issues. These range in subject and scale from the impact of transnational migration on global cities whose populations are at least thirty percent of foreign origin to the critical importance of everyday life, as it is experienced on the streets and in neighborhoods, for a full understanding of urban planning. An autobiographical exploration, tracing the author’s evolution as one of the world’s foremost theorists of city-regional development and planning, deepens the perspective mapped out over the course of the volume and provides new insight into the study of the urban landscape in a global environment.

Whether arguing for a new approach to sustainable development, finding the moral focus of nonterritorial citizenship, or mounting a spirited, pragmatic defense of utopian thinking in urban planning, Friedmann offers an informed, workable, and hopeful prospect for the cities of our time, and of the future.