Cities Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Cities Development - Essay Example 2(Mike Douglass, Kong-Chong ho, 2008). Civic spaces should be available for daily practices and other collaborative engagements of the society. Civil society must actively participate in governance and making it a livable civic society. The concept of civic spaces should be understood and analyzed in the context of urban politics and metropolitan governance. The civil spaces are not empty spaces. Civic spaces are basically an extension of the civil society. It is viewed as a stage for our public life if working properly. It is the place where celebrations are held and where the social, political and economic exchanges take place. The benefit of transforming a civic society into a great public place goes a long way. It enhances civic realm not only visually but it ensures healthy growth, provides a forum for interaction and gives foundation for enhancing the livability of the community. Without great public places great cities are not possible. There are strong linkages between civic society and the forces that shape urban politics and governance. Civil society is a very elusive phenomenon which depends on a number of internal and external forces and a wide array of inputs from different segments of the society with rising and diminishing importance in different parts of the city. Global Cities Global cities are responsible for structural conditions of urban change. There exits strong relationship between emerging social disparities in global cities and their impact on politics. These income inequalities, political injustices and power differentials have led to social movements in global cities. The most recent lived economic crises along with... This paper stresses that global cities are responsible for structural conditions of urban change. There exits strong relationship between emerging social disparities in global cities and their impact on politics. These income inequalities, political injustices and power differentials have led to social movements in global cities. The most recent lived economic crises along with the bundle of other social and cultural injustices have resulted in the rise of the civil society. This rise of civil society is prevalent in all the global cities throughout the world. The role of civil society based organizations has increased manifolds especially in the context of recent downsizing and retreat of government from service delivery. Civil society based organizations are acting as important economic and social stabilizers in the neoliberalized political economy. This report makes a conclusion that with ever increasing Globalization and capitalism still being the most dominant system I don’t see the landscape of consumption in the civil societies will undergo any major changes. Although as we have already discussed that in some advanced industrial countries the trend is movement towards rural areas in search of less crowded and serene environment. This trend is still negligible and the major and dominant trend is towards urbanization and the mushroom growth of shopping malls, theme malls and even whole commercial cities such as Dubai. I don’t see that in the current scenario cities have the potential of moving from landscape of consumption to landscape of production in the near future. Capitalism marked by consumerism will remain the trend in the near future.