by Mark Swilling
Sometime within the next five to ten years, the world will step through a crucial barrier: the majority of the world's population will be living in cities for the first time in human history, and the majority will be – and already are – massive sprawling megalopoli located mainly in developing countries. By 2015, there will be 26 "megacities" – cities with more than 10 million inhabitants (of which Tokyo, Bombay and Lagos will be the three largest).
These cities are already the most unequal and unsustainable places in the world, but they are also the leading centers of increasingly intense social innovation, cultural integration and synergy, economic development, and political transformation. Nobody knows what will emerge from these grand melting pots: from Shanghai to Santiago, Mexico City to Manila, Cape Town to Cairo, and Istanbul to Sao Paulo – this is where the future is being crafted, for better or for worse.
One thing is sure: much will depend on how the urban poor get organized, and whom they form alliances with. This month's Changemakers Journal profiles three social entrepreneurs whose work emphasizes the importance of incremental action to empower and build alliances, linked to action for fundamental change.
Nobody disputes that humanity is facing a global economic, social and ecological crisis. What is less clear is the spatial manifestation of this crisis, and what actions provide hope for how humanity can survive the crisis and evolve into a new order.
