Age of the City: Why Our Future Will Be Won or Lost Together maps the city as the decisive site of the twenty-first century's most pressing crises — inequality, social fragmentation, pandemic resilience, and climate change — and insists this is where solutions must be built.
About This Book
More than half of humanity now lives in cities, and that proportion is climbing. Yet urbanisation has not delivered on its promise equally: globalisation and technological change have concentrated wealth into a handful of booming metropolises while leaving smaller cities and towns hollowed out, fuelling populist resentment. Even within thriving cities like London or San Francisco, the gap between rich and poor widens as digital retreat erodes the social fabric. Drawing on history — from Athens and Rome to New York and Shanghai — Ian Goldin and Tom Lee-Devlin argue that cities are not merely the backdrop to these crises but the terrain on which they will be resolved. Essential reading for urban planners, policymakers, and anyone engaged with the future of the built environment.
Key Features
- 256 pages combining historical analysis with contemporary urban case studies including London, San Francisco, New York, and Shanghai
- Co-authored by Oxford professor Ian Goldin and The Economist's Tom Lee-Devlin
- Named one of the Financial Times' Best Economics Books of 2023
- Published by Bloomsbury, 2023
What You'll Discover
- How globalisation has concentrated economic power into a small number of dominant metropolises, and what this means for urban equity and spatial justice
- The ways in which cities from antiquity to the present have functioned as engines of human progress — and why that dynamic is now under serious threat
- How the retreat into online worlds is eroding the social cohesion that dense urban life once generated, and what is at stake for civic life
- Why pandemics and climate change pose existential risks specifically to the urban form, and how city-scale policy is the necessary first response
About the Author
Ian Goldin is a professor at Oxford University whose work focuses on globalisation, development, and systemic risk. Tom Lee-Devlin is a writer and editor at The Economist. Together they bring complementary perspectives in economics and international affairs to the question of urban futures.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 256
- Dimensions: 234 x 153 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781399412421
- Publisher: Bloomsbury
- Publication Date: 2023
Perfect For: Urban designers, planners, architects engaged with civic and social infrastructure, policy researchers, and design academics with an interest in the political economy of cities.