By Seth Kaplan

From Lagos to Medellín, the generative energy of dense cities could drive the development of their fragile parent states, reports Seth Kaplan

A lot of the developing world isn’t developing, or at least not in a positive direction. Instead of nurturing prosperity, democracy and security, many parts of the developing world are cultivating poverty, anarchy and instability. These are the fragile countries, such as Nigeria, Yemen, Pakistan and the DR Congo, where governments face impotence, illegitimacy and irrelevance.

Fragile states have a rising number of the world’s poor (half of the world’s people who live on less than $1.25 a day will be in fragile states by 2015, according to the OECD). They are riddled with cronyism and corruption. Slum networks mushroom in the urban peripheries; drug lords, militias and terrorists infest their ungoverned spaces. Fragile states are a major focus of international aid efforts, but it is difficult to improve governance there.

If the international community and their own governments won’t or can’t save them, who will? The answer might be: their cities and citizens. If enough power were devolved to urban areas from corrupt and over-centralised national governments, fragile states might succeed. At least in democracies, the cities have more potential as elected politicians face more pressure to get results than national leaders....Continue Reading

> via The Architectural Review