Abstract
The world is undergoing a process of rapid urbanisation (Figure 1). Half of the world’s population now live in cities and according to the United Nations this proportion is set to rise to 70% in 20501. Globalisation and the emergence of a worldwide network society are simultaneously the cause and consequence of this urbanisation process2. Cities in this society assume many forms: in addition to the traditional central cities (Paris, Berlin, Moscow) there are extended mega cities (New York, Tokyo, Mumbai, Beijing) or yet bigger areas, sometimes deltas, which become completely urbanised, such as the Pearl River Delta in South China or the Southern Yangtze Delta between Shanghai and Nanjing. Our own environment is described by urban planners as a ‘polycentric metropolis’; some people restrict this to the Randstad, others mean the Dutch city ring and still others have the Northwest European Delta in mind3. Urbanisation is highly evolved in Europe and North America. Figure 1 shows that the major population concentrations are in Asia and Africa, and it is precisely there that urbanisation is happening most rapidly. It is to cities that people look for financial security, a better education for their children and job prospects, and they migrate there in great numbers for these reasons. In cities an antithesis is emerging between spaces of flows, which jointly shape the worldwide network society, and spaces of places, which give each city its own identity, history and uniqueness. In terms of space many metropolises are a sequence of built-up places and open spaces, formerly known as countryside. Where there was, in the past, a sharp division between city and countryside, this distinction has disappeared in and around metropolises. In the polycentric metropolis of North West Europe it has certainly become increasingly difficult to identify places that are rural in the traditional sense of the word. The city is everywhere.
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Notes
- 1.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Afairs/ Population Division (2008). World urbanization prospects. The 2007 revision. United Nations, New York, USA: 1: ‘Te (…) world population will reach a landmark in 2008: for the first time in history the urban population will equal the rural population of the world and, from then on, the world population will be urban in its majority. (…) Between 2007 and 2050, the world population is expected to increase by 2.5 billion, passing from 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion (…). At the same time, the population living in urban areas is projected to gain 3.1 billion, passing from 3.3 billion in 2007 to 6.4 billion 2050. Thus, the urban areas of the world are expected to absorb all the population growth expected over the next four decades’
- 2.
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- 4.
The concept of industrial ecology was first used in industrial areas belonging to the chemical industry, whereby means were sought to use waste material from one production process as raw material for another. Frosch R.A. and N.E. Gallopoulos (1989). Strategies for manufacturing. Scientific American 261: 144-152.. The website of the Journal of Industrial Ecology defines industrial ecology as ‘a rapidly growing field that systematically examines local, regional and global materials and energy uses and flows in products, processes, industrial sectors and economies. It focuses on the potential role of industry in reducing environmental burdens throughout the product life cycle from the extraction of raw materials, to the production of goods, to the use of those goods and to the management of the resulting wastes. Industrial ecology is ecological in that it (1) places human activity – industry in the very broadest sense – in the larger context of the biophysical environment from which we obtain resources and into which we place our wastes, and (2) looks to the natural world for models of highly efficient use of resources, energy and byproducts. By selectively applying these models, the environmental performance of industry can be improved. Industrial ecology sees corporate entities as key players in the protection of the environment, particularly where technological innovation is an avenue for environmental improvement. As repositories of technological expertise in our society, corporations provide crucial leverage in attacking environmental problems through product and process design’ http://www.wiley.com/bw/aims.asp?ref=1088–1980&site=1, accessed on 29 July 2009.
- 5.
Although illegal, Dutch cannabis cultivation, usually in its tolerated form, which goes on in numerous attics and in only a few square metres per production location, can also be a very lucrative form of land independent agriculture.
- 6.
Intensive livestock farming no doubt needs large areas for arable farming in other parts of the world to produce fodder for livestock, but in these arable farming systems too, productivity is slowly rising and increasingly less space is needed per unit of product.
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But although Sloterdijk limited the concept to the period of globalisation that, according to his definition, finished around 1945, I prefer to continue to apply the concept in the Global Age.
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For a more detailed description of the body of ideas involved here, see Asbeek Brusse W., H. van Dalen and B. Wissink (2002). Stad en land in een nieuwe geografie. Maatschappelijke veranderingen en ruimtelijke dynamiek. Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid, The Hague, the Netherlands.
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Veldkamp A., A.C. Van Altvorst, R. Eweg, E. Jacobsen, A. Van Kleef, H. Van Latesteijn, S. Mager, H. Mommaas, P.J.A.M. Smeets, L. Spaans and H. Van Trijp (2008). Triggering transitions towards sustainable development of Dutch agriculture: Transforum’s approach. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 29: 87–96.
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Smeets, P.J.A.M. (2011). Context, aim and method. In: Smeets, P.J.A.M. (eds) Expedition agroparks. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-719-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-719-6_1
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