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Good City Glossary

What are the words and terms we can use to describe good cities?

Dr Liz Brooks | Research Associate and Associate Lecturer, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape

From Age-Friendly to World City, what vocabulary, concepts and definitions are associated with the 'good city'? This annotated glossary compiles associated terms and was produced in 2022 for the Good City Project.

Download the full glossary here: A Good City Annotated Glossary (2022) by Dr Liz Brooks. [PDF] 

15-minute City / 20-minute City

An offshoot of the Smart City approach, in the wake of the global pandemic, the 15-minute city concept, initially proposed in 2016 by Carlos Moreno, draws together ideas around constructing a more humane urban fabric with those of building safer, more resilient, sustainable and inclusive cities, as highlighted in UN Sustainable Development Goal 11. Taken up by the media and widely adopted in a range of cities, the concept proposes a city of quasi-self contained neighbourhoods, within which all the resources and services needed for a good quality of life are within fifteen (or twenty) minutes’ walk or cycle-ride from the residents.

England’s Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) guide, choosing a slightly looser time-frame and a more accurate spatial designation, notes that the characteristics of a twenty-minute neighbourhood should be based on what the local community wants, but that some combination of the following are likely to be key ingredients: diverse and affordable homes; well connected paths, streets and spaces; schools at the heart of communities; good green spaces in the right places; local food production; keeping jobs and money local; community health and wellbeing facilities; and a place for all ages.

Find out more:

Age-Friendly Cities

A World Health Organization (WHO) initiative dating back to the 1991 adoption of UN Principles on Older Persons, with the first Global Age-Friendly Cities guide published by WHO in 2007. Subsequently, numerous cities and city districts have gained recognition for adopting Age Friendly City principles.

A related concept, called Lifetime Neighbourhoods, recognises that the various adaptations and modifications that support citizens in higher age groups also work better for children, young families and disabled adults. Variants of this approach have been incorporated into the WHO concept by using the term “All-Age Friendly Cities” (Manchester & Facer, 2014).

Find out more:

Best Cities

A ranking of the top 100 global cities, and separately, of the top US cities,  undertaken by a commercial consultancy, Resonance Consultancy, that categorises cities on the basis of “Place,  Product, Programming, People, Prosperity, Promotion”. It is said to gain copious press coverage each year: “Bloomberg calls Best Cities ‘the most comprehensive city ranking on the planet,’ and the world’s media faithfully report the standings every year, with more than 1,500 stories in 2020 alone”. It is, however, just one among a plethora of city ranking systems reported by the press, including Liveability rankings, Quality of Life rankings, a Global Green Economy city index, Competitive Cities, Well-run Cities and so on.

Find out more:

 

Caring Cities

A concept that has evolved from the trend towards desinstitutionalisation of people with physical and mental ill-health and disability, and the attendant ‘geographies of care’ approach, this now embraces both care for our fellow citizens and care for wildlife and ecological systems in and beyond cities.

The idea of a caring city gained traction during the 2020-22(?) global pandemic, with the serial lockdowns condemning all but key workers to enforced isolation. This was a time when public authorities became more aware of their obligations both towards the already-vulnerable, and to those who had become so through the suspension of public life and services.

The idea of a caring city disrupts the dualism that pitches public spaces as a site of politics and justice, against private space as the sphere of emotion and care. Care is reinterpreted as a political, ethical and relational concept, and cities are reimagined in terms of (un)caring social and spatial practices and relations among humans and non-humans. As cities emerge from pandemic conditions into a situation of economic turbulence and accelerating climate crisis, the approach is likely to draw greater focus and achieve wider application.

Find out more:

  • Davies, J. (2022) The Caring City: Ethics of Urban Design. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

  • Gabauer, A., Knierbein, S., Cohen, N., Lebuhn, H., Trogal, K., Viderman, T. and Haas, T. (2021) Care and the City. New York: Routledge.

  • Power, E.R. and Williams, M.J. (2020) ‘Cities of Care: A platform for urban geographical care research’, Geography Compass, 14, e12474.

  • Trogal, K. (2017). Caring: Making Commons, Making Connections. In D. Petrescu & K. Trogal (Eds), The Social (Re)Production of Architecture: Politics, Values and Actions in Contemporary Practice (pp. 159–174). London: Routledge.

Child-Friendly Cities

This is a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) initiative, which gives recognition to cities that work towards a standard, raising awareness of children’s well-being in urban areas. Newcastle is one of only four cities in England to be working towards this status. “The programme aims to profoundly change the way local government works with and for children, so children have a say in decisions that affect them, experience services that are designed with and for them, know what services are available to them, understand how to access and navigate the often complex local systems, and feel safe and prioritised within their cities and communities.”

The requirements of Child-Friendly Cities have sometimes been integrated with the concept of Age-Friendly Cities through the catch-all term,  All-Age Friendly Cities – see entry for the former.

Find out more:

Cities Alliance

This organisation, founded in 1999 and based in Brussels, has the tagline “Cities without slums” and describes itself as a global partnership of cities delivering innovative, multi-sectoral solutions to urban poverty and supporting cities with sustainable development. It has country programmes in Liberia, Uganda and Tunisia and its general programmes include those focused on migration, informality and issues for women. There are currently 23 core members of the Alliance but it has managed to support 176 City Development Strategies and aspires to reach out to 200 cities by 2030. It also supported 17 countries with their Covid-19 response in 2020 and 2021.

Find out more:

[The] City Beautiful

A movement associated with US cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City and Washington, D.C., that sought to raise aesthetic standards in city planning, not only to please the eye, but also as a way to elevate moral standards among citizens. It was intended to introduce a European Beaux-Arts aesthetic to US cities.

The movement is said to have originated in Chicago in 1893 with the World’s Columbian Exposition, organised by the architect Daniel Burnham. City Beautiful ideas influenced the redesign of the central core of Washington DC and were adopted by the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted who designed New York’s Central Park. Notable opponents such as architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan wanted to generate a distinctly American aesthetic, rather than borrow from Europe.

Find out more:

City of Sanctuary

A movement to make refugees feel welcome and supported when they are resettled in UK cities, this organisation began in Sheffield in 2005 and has now spread to hundreds of UK local authorities, including Newcastle City Council.

“City of Sanctuary UK coordinates, supports and grows this network of welcome. From community groups to schools and universities, local councils to libraries and theatres, we work with individuals, groups and organisations in every area and in every sector to encourage inclusivity, compassion and solidarity. From coordination, collaboration, practical training and opportunities for people with lived experience of the asylum system, to vital resources and unmissable webinars, we do all we can to support and grow these networks of welcome.”

A North Eastern angle is enshrined in local artist Sam Slatcher’s 2018 folk song hailing Durham as ‘City of Sanctuary’; Sam has expanded from this to a collaboration with Syrian musician Raghad Haddad, which had its first live performance in Newcastle’s Cumberland Arms in 2019. See also Inclusive City.

Find out more:

 

Cognitive City

See Smart Cities

 

[The] Compact City

“The so-called compact city has a variety of definitions but in general is taken to mean a relatively high-density, mixed-use city, based on an efficient public transport system and dimensions that encourage walking and cycling. It contrasts with the car-oriented ‘urban sprawl’ of many modern towns and cities. The process of achieving urban compactness is usually termed ‘intensification’, ‘consolidation’ or ‘densification’, and involves the re-use of brownfield land, more intensive use of urban buildings, sub-divisions and conversions of existing development and an increase in the density of population in urban areas.” (Burton, 2012: 1969). Compact city approaches have been seen as a solution to creating sustainable cities, although critics point out that there are many confounding factors and that processes may be as important as urban form in achieving sustainability.

Find out more:

  • Burton, E. (2000) The Compact City: Just or Just Compact? A Preliminary Analysis, Urban Studies, 37(11), 1969– 2001.
  • Jenks, M., Burton, E. and Williams, K (1996) Compact Cities: A Sustainable Urban Form?
  • Neuman, M. (2005) The Compact City Fallacy, Journal of Planning Education and Research, 25:11-26.
  • OECD (2012) Compact City Policies: A Comparative Assessment. OECD Green Growth Studies, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264167865-en
Competitive Cities

This is a concept that has been championed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and OECD as a way to understand cities’ contribution to territorial development. WEF defines city competitiveness as: “the set of factors – policies, institutions, strategies and processes -- that determines the level of sustainable productivity of a city” – productivity being defined as “the efficiency with which an economy uses available inputs to produce outputs” (WEF, 2014), which is the factor behind economic growth. The OECD considers that the competitive city agenda has emerged because, due to globalisation, there has been a move away from managerialism in cities, focused on meeting citizens’ needs through social welfare, to entrepreneurialism, focused on catering to the needs of the private sector and encouraging economic growth (OECD, 2007). It is important to note that most definitions of the competitive city integrate the concepts of liveability and of economic, social and environmental sustainability as part of the competitive offer (e.g. WEF, 2014; OECD, 2006).

The idea of competitive cities has most recently been taken up in a UK context in the Government’s Levelling Up White Paper, where there is a plan to invest for competitive cities in each of the 11 regions of the UK outside of London (the only UK city recognised as competitive on the major metrics); Centre for Cities considers only three other UK cities have this potential (CfC, 2022).

Find out more:

Core Cities

This is an expert group of UK regional cities that work together to advocate with government for common interests, with activities including a developing a shared work agenda, joint positions and policies and building partnerships both domestically and internationally. The majority of the core cities were those that were first elevated from borough to county status for purposes of local government in the 19th century, with additions from the devolved administrations later on: Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield. (Up to 2022, the group was chaired by the leader of Newcastle City Council.)

The cities work together to overcome the shared challenge of representing around 30% of UK population, but only a quarter of UK GDP, lagging in productivity below the UK average and comparably-sized OECD cities.

Find out more:

  • Core Cities (undated) ‘What are Core Cities?’

  • OECD (2020) Enhancing Productivity in UK Core Cities: Connecting Local and Regional Growth. Paris: OECD.

Creative City

The term was coined by the academic Charles Landry in the US but its best known exponent is Richard Florida, a professor of Economic Analysis and Policy at the University of Toronto. His core theory is that building agglomerations of creative industries is key to boosting city economies and bringing about regeneration. Where a location with access to primary materials was formerly key to urban prosperity, it is now based on attracting and retaining those who are more likely to innovate: the creative class. Florida provides a formula for realising the economic benefits of creativity in a city: Technology, Talent and Tolerance.

The theory has been criticized for exacerbating the existing marginalisation of some groups and as leading to investment being focused on places with some existing degree of prosperity and gentrification, rather than supporting the most excluded places to regenerate.

Find out more:

  • Florida, R.L. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.
  • Landry, C. (2008) The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. London: Routledge.
  • Peck, J. (2005) Struggling with the Creative Class, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 29(4), 740-770.
C40 Cities

C40 is a network of mayors of around a hundred major international cities, representing nearly 10% of the world’s economy, collaborating at the leading edge of climate action. It began in London (still the only UK member) in 2005. Membership of the network is not through fees but via meeting performance criteria called Leadership Standards which relate to the mission of the group: to halve the emissions of member cities and help the world limit heating to 1.5°C, while improving equity, building resilience, and creating the conditions for all to thrive.

One of the key manifestos for the C40 is the Global Green New Deal, which they describe as:  “a holistic, intersectional approach to climate action, recognising that climate, social and economic justice can only be achieved together”. The Deal is being rolled out through a pilot study in five cities, and is targeting  “inclusive climate action, a just transition and demonstrating what C40’s vision for a Global Green New Deal – including a green and just recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic – looks like in practice”. C40 also hosts a Knowledge Hub with multiple resources on key urban climate issues including: transport, finance, energy, air quality, buildings and construction.

Find out more:

Democratic Cities

The term ‘democracy’ is intimately linked with the idea of the city, having been coined in the mid-fifth century BCE to describe the form of rule pertaining in Greek city-states, such as Athens (Dahl, 2022). Historically, such city-states were small enough to be governed by assemblies of citizens – this was a direct democracy. By the 19th century, most cities were too large for this and representative democracy became the norm; although with a perpetual tension about whether representatives should be drawn from the existing elite or from the general populace. By the 21st century, some analysts identified the rise of the ‘Post-Democratic City’, based on the displacement in the decision-making of elected representatives by public-private partnerships and quasi-public agencies (Purcell, 2008).

At the same time, new methods of bringing city governance back to the citizens themselves came to the fore, and the idea of a democratic city has become linked with the Smart City’s capacity to reinvigorate urban democracy and bring city government “closer to the people” (OECD, 2001). As with any technology, however, there is a tendency for the less educated and those on lower incomes to be excluded (ibid.: 50); and in practice e-participation, as it is known, has not yet become a significant component of smart cities (Cropf and Benton, 2019). See also the Participatory City.   

Find out more:

  • Cropf R.A. and Benton, M. (2019) ‘Towards a Working Model of e-Participation in Smart Cities: What the Research Suggests’. Chapter in Rodriguez Bolivar, M.P. and Munoz, L. (Eds) E-Participation in Smart Cities: Technologies and Models of Governance for Citizen Engagement. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
  • Dahl, R. A. "Democracy". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Mar. 2022.
  • OECD (2001) Cities for Citizens: Improving Metropolitan Governance. Paris: OECD.OECD (2001) Cities for Citizens: Improving Metropolitan Governance. Paris: OECD.
  • Purcell, M. (2008) Recapturing Democracy: Neoliberalization and the Struggle for Alternative Urban Futures. New York: Routledge.
Doughnut City or City Doughnut

There are two main meanings associated with this concept, one with highly negative and one with positive connotations. The older of the two describes an undesirable structural phenomenon characteristic of older city forms due to people with higher incomes leaving the city centre for the periphery. Thus, the doughnut city consists of “empty buildings, derelict areas, crime, and vandalism in the centre; and wealth, happiness, and family life in the suburbs” (Priemus, 2004). While Priemus (ibid.) saw the solution in knowledge-based business services stimulated by the tech revolution, OECD  saw the source in regeneration aimed at attracting economically active population back into central areas and regenerating economic infrastructures (2007:1 – see Competitive Cities).

The more recent concept of the City Doughnut – a city, such as Amsterdam, that has integrated economist Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics into its strategic vision – envisages the doughnut as a mid-zone for the operation of city life in between a sound social foundation at its core, and environmental limits at its periphery. Initially adopted in cities like Amsterdam with strong economies and relative autonomy, it is now permeating to cities in a wider range of circumstances (DEAL, 2022).

Find out more:

  • Doughnut Economics Lab (DEAL) (2022) ‘Tools and Stories’. 

  • Priemus, H. (2004) Changing urban housing markets in advanced economies, Housing, Theory and Society, 21:1, 2-16.

  • Raworth, K. (2017) Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist. London: Random House.

Eco-City

The eco-city is an idea that is said to have been around for over four decades. It is distinguished from Green Cities and Sustainable Cities by the attempt to create a comprehensive and transferable model of sustainable urban development. While the original eco-city models, emerging in the context of environmental movements of the 1960s and 1970s, sought to establish urban development that respects environmental limits, contemporary projects place more emphasis on economic benefits alongside environmental ones. New eco-cities have flourished particularly in countries that are creating large new settlements, as in Asia. They are sites of experimentation and innovation with varied levels of success in both economic and environmental terms.

Find out more:

  • Rapoport, E. (2014) Utopian visions and real estate dreams: the Eco-City past, present and future. Geography Compass, 8(2), 137–149.
Entrepreneurial Cities

These are cities which have optimal conditions for business (also known as ‘Global Business Cities’ in the international ranking system produced by Statista). There is considerable overlap with Competitive Cities.

Statista’s annual ranking is based on the following sub-indices: "Economy" - economic strength and the level of development; "Business environment" - infrastructure and logistics; "Society" - population development, education and standard of living; "Charisma" - tourism, culture and environment.

Find out more:

Eurocities

Eurocities is a network of over 200 European cities, with a secretariat based in Brussels, founded in 1986. It represents 130 million people, spread across 38 nations and membership is open to any city with a population at or bigger than 250,000. The UK alone accounts for 16 member cities, including Newcastle upon Tyne. The association has multiple goals clustered around six themes: inclusive society, local economy, healthy environment, public spaces, global challenges and fit for the future. Among recent and ongoing joint projects are initiatives relating to mobility, brownfield and vacant lots, logistics, net zero, valuation of culture and food trails.

Find out more:

Fair City

This idea is associated with the political philosophy of John Rawls, who focused on the idea of justice as fairness (Rawls, 2001), in particular, the fair distribution of income and wealth, also sometimes including natural resources. Rawls’ concept of fairness is centred around the stringent ‘difference principle’, whereby inequalities of income and wealth are to be permitted only when they are to the advantage of the least well off (Rawls, 1972).  Others have argued that the idea of fair distribution can be retained without strict adherence to the difference principle and can go beyond the exclusive focus on resources, for example, emphasising ‘capabilities’ (the affordances of the city for action and self-development – Sen, 1980), or equality of opportunity, or opportunity for welfare.

The term came into the spotlight in relation to the various Fairness Commissions that sprang up in response to council budget cuts or austerity in the early 20-teens. The concept of fairness is more ‘common-sensical’ than the related legal/ethical concept of the Just City, but the two are used interchangeably in some contexts.  

Find out more:

  • Davoudi, S. and Bell, D. (2016) Justice and Fairness in the City: A Multi-disciplinary approach to ‘Ordinary’ Cities’. Bristol: Policy Press.
  • New Economics Foundation (2015) Fairness Commissions: Understanding how local authorities can have an impact. [PDF]
  • Rawls, J. (1972) A theory of justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Rawls, J. (2001) Justice as fairness: A restatement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Sen, A. (1980) ‘Equality of what?’ The Tanner Lecture on Human Values delivered at Stanford University, 22 May 1979. [PDF]

 

Garden City

The Garden City concept was developed towards the end of the 19th century in the UK and was very influential on new towns across the 20th century, both domestically and internationally. The foundational text by Ebenezer Howard, originally entitled To-morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform in 1898, was reissued in 1902 as Garden Cities of Tomorrow. The success of the book generated the political support required to translate some of its central ideas into new settlements (although the author’s economic model was ultimately resisted by the banks). Garden cities provide an alternative type of settlement for lower-income people, avoiding both the poverty of rural farm labour and the squalor of city life, through networks of small low-rise cities with plenty of public green space, intended to marry the health and community benefits of town and country living, and in the original model, removing waste from the equation by making each city recycle all wastes back to the soil to assure surrounding land productivity.

The garden city idea has been influential on subsequent city planning movements such as The New Urbanism and Healthy Cities. While many of the 20th century garden city prototypes such as Welwyn Garden City and Milton Keynes are broadly successful in attracting and retaining populations, some of those in more deprived regions have foundered. One important critique is that garden cities were intended to be self-sufficient but due to the central locations of many jobs and services, they have partly devolved into satellite dormitory towns for larger cities. A related critique comes from the Compact City movement and reflects on potential sustainability deficits: with large spatial footprints and low-rise housing with well-provided greenspace, garden cities consume swathes of natural and agricultural land,  make high demands on new infrastructure creation and generate high (often private) transport use. 

Find out more:

  • Brett, C. (2003)  Ebenezer Howard and the Marriage of Town and Country: An Introduction to Howard’s Garden Cities of Tomorrow, Organization & Environment, 16(1), March 2003 87-97.
  • Buder, S. (1990) Visionaries and Planners: The Garden City Movement and the Modern Community. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Good City

The idea of the Good City has its roots in moral and political philosophy and religious tradition. Following the adage that “the good is the enemy of the best”,  a Good City may be one that seeks incremental functional improvements and overall citizen well-being, above or alongside goals such as competitive advantage and global status.

To this end, the Good City might be supposed to be one that works towards integrating some or all of the other positive city concepts in this glossary: Caring, Green, Sustainable, Happy, Smart, Walkable, Liveable, Healthy, Fair and Just. 

Alternatively, ideas about the Good City can be seen as a form of legitimising rhetoric about urban planning, as identified in Ruppert’s book, that seeks to raise the status of urban professionals in the public’s eye.

Find out more:

  • Amin, A. (2006) The Good City, Urban Studies, 43(5-6): 1009 –1023.
  • Friedmann, J. (2000) The Good City: In Defense of Utopian Thinking, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24(2): 460-472.
  • Gehl, J. (2010) Cities for People. Washington DC: Island Press.
  • Hall, P. (2014) Good Cities, Better Lives: How Europe Discovered the Lost Art of Urbanism. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Ruppert, E. (2005) The Moral Economy of Cities: Shaping Good Citizens. University of Toronto Press: Toronto.
Great Cities

Outside of appearing in the seminal urban planning text, Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the term Great Cities, like Best Cities, is predominantly found in coffee table books, media guides and travelogues. An example is the currently airing Great Cities of the World on ITV by celebrity Joanna Lumley.

'Great City' is also the epithet chosen by Newcastle City Council to characterise Newcastle - which also qualifies as a Healthy City, a Core City, City of Sanctuary, an Age-Friendly City - and is working towards Child-Friendly City status.

Find out more:

Green City

“The Green City Accord is a movement of European cities committed to safeguarding the environment. In signing the Green City Accord, city leaders agree to take further action to make their cities greener, cleaner and healthier places”. It is one of the projects led by the Eurocities association (in partnership with the Non-Government Organisation ICLEI and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions).  Signatories to the Accord commit to elevate their progress in five dimensions of the Green city by 2030:  air quality; water quality and water use efficiency; conserving and enhancing urban biodiversity; advancing towards the circular economy; and noise pollution reduction. The Accord initiative offers support to cities in establishing targets and implementing actions in these areas, and promotes capacity building through peer-learning and knowledge-sharing activities.

Find out more:

Happy City

The Happy City is a concept coined by Charles Montgomery, a Canadian journalist, based on a set of research-informed ideas about how to increase people’s well-being in cities through urban design. In particular it addresses the importance in city design of balancing opportunities for social and community connections and places for retreat and privacy. It also emphasises the co-benefits of urban greenspace for environment and human well-being.

Find out more:

  • Montgomery, C. (2013) Happy City: Transforming Our Lives through Urban Design. London: Penguin.
Healthy City

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (WHO, 1946). The Organization claimed health to be one of the fundamental rights of everyone, regardless of race, religion, political beliefs or personal background.

Forty years on from that definition, in 1986, the WHO launched its Healthy Cities Network, with the aim of raising awareness of issues around urban public health and rallying an interdisciplinary response from planners, designers, public health professionals and others. Approximately 1,400 municipalities from 30 different countries currently take part, including seven designated and nine  ‘network’ cities in the UK. One stand-out example of the Healthy City is Copenhagen, a founding member of the Healthy Cities Network, well known for its integration of greenspace, ample provision for cyclists and wide offer of sports facilities.

While health disparities in UK cities are harsh, achievements of the UK’s healthy cities network have been limited. In a separate initiative, from 2015-2019, the National Health Service in England led a Healthy New Towns programme in ten demonstrator sites across England. This resulted in a suite of detailed guidance publications for building health into the urban fabric, but many of the pilot projects were subsequently rolled back.

Find out more:

Inclusive Cities

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 calls for “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” cities to be achieved by 2030 and various organisations have sought to flesh out what “inclusive” might mean in terms of urban policies and actions on the ground. Three of the main programmes are outlined here.

The World Bank divides Inclusive Cities into three main areas of activity: spatial, social and economic inclusion. It offers strategies, including advice on investment and financial dimensions, relating to its organisational remit.

UN-Habitat has an Inclusive Cities Programme (its Flagship Programme 4) that is focused on planning cities affected by population displacement. The full title of the programme includes the phrase: ‘Enhancing the positive impacts of urban migration’ and its stated ambition is to  “promot(e) participation and social cohesion and the protection of Human Rights for all”.

The Centre of Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at Oxford University supports 12 UK cities and partner organisations to upgrade their approach towards integration of newcomers in the city, recognising in particular children and young people’s needs. A first wave of cities was supported from 2017 to 2019 and a second wave is benefitting from inputs between 2019 to 2023.

Find out more:

Innovative/Innovation Cities

The World Economic Forum produces an index of Innovative Cities generated through combining rankings of “innovation” with those of “talent concentration”. The former is estimated through the indicators of foreign direct investment in high tech industries; attraction of venture capital; R&D expenditure; and international patent applications. The latter is assessed through indicators of quality of higher education provision; education level of the population; demographics (migration, working age population and dependency ratio); and employment in high tech industries.

An alternative index of ‘Innovation Cities’, produced by a data consultancy, 2thinknow, is based on 162 indicators classed into three major categories: cultural assets, human infrastructure and networked markets.

The rankings in both indices are dominated by US and Asian cities, with relatively low representation of contenders from Europe and other continents.

Find out more:

Just City

For economic geographer David Harvey, a city is an expression of capitalism as the dominant mode of production, and market exchange as the dominant mode of economic integration. Together these create concentrations of surplus value in the hands of a capitalist class. The city can be seen therefore as inherently unjust and spatial mechanisms, for example, decisions over where new jobs and homes are located, are considered likely to increase a city’s inequalities. The effects of these mechanisms can be mitigated or deployed to reduce inequality or promote a more egalitarian distribution of real income, thus furthering social justice in the city (2009: 53).

As understood by Susan Fainstein, senior research fellow at the Harvard School of Graduate Design, although cities are situated in networks of government institutions and capital flows, they have some control over justice outcomes – as indicated by the differences between cities in the same country. The Just City addresses and seeks to assure social justice through exercise of its administrative and jurisdictional authority.

Fainstein’s theory is particularly applicable to social justice issues relating to urban redevelopment, racial and ethnic relations, open space planning, and service delivery. The theory has been particularly successful in challenging instances where new development, often in the name of city regeneration, displaces lower income, often minority, urban populations.

Find out more:

  • Fainstein, S. (2010) The Just City. London and Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • Harvey, D (1973/2009) Social Justice and the City. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Key Cities

This is a network of 25 English (and one Welsh) cities of diverse character and size formed in 2013 which collaborate on programmes, strategies, representation and lobbying. The membership is mainly of smaller cities and does not overlap with that of the Core Cities group. Notable among its achievements is an all-party parliamentary group, the Key Cities APPG. Currently the only North Eastern city represented in the Key Cities network is Sunderland.

Find out more:

Liveable City

This is a crossover academic/media concept that has been interpreted in various ways, depending on national and geographic context. Its face validity  ̶  meaningfulness and applicability  ̶  for city dwellers concerned with the experiential qualities of urban living may have supported wider media uptake of the term. Regions where, without careful design, city living would become unsustainable at certain times of year, often relating to issues such as heat, flooding and air quality, strongly raise the issue of the cities’ experiential qualities. Social aspects may also be highlighted by the term:  “In addition to providing clean water, clean air, adequate food and shelter, a ‘livable’ city must also generate a sense of community and offer hospitable settings for all, especially young people, to develop social skills, a sense of autonomy and identity.” (Caves, 2004).

Liveability forms the basis of a number of academic research studies and the United Nations deploys the concept in urban planning guidance; while a prominent media organisation, the Economist Intelligence Unit, produces an annual Liveability Index,  with several other organisations offering comparable “quality of life” based city rankings.

Find out more:

Participatory Cities

Participatory Cities was a project that responded to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals commitment to “meaningful participation” in urban decision making, planning and practice (especially in Goals 11 and 16).  The project sought to feed into ongoing research in Greater Manchester and the Swedish city of Gothenburg, with the overarching aim of sharing knowledge about how to enhance participation in cities with urban decision-makers and international policy communities.

Three main questions have been explored:

  1. How can cities develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions?
  2. How can cities ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making?
  3. What needs to be done to enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanisation and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management at the urban level?

See also Democratic Cities.

Find out more:

Post-pandemic City

An emerging concept; a number of challenges have arisen over the COVID-19 public health crisis that need to be addressed by city managers, including the question of dispersal versus concentration; out-migration of the workforce; the infrastructure and services impacts of increased working from home; the move to internet shopping for a wider array of goods and services than before the pandemic; the need for high streets therefore to find strategies to continue to attract visitors; a requirement for more space between people and better ventilation of shopping areas (which may disadvantage enclosed malls); and awareness of the role and importance of local communities in supporting citizens who are or have become isolated as a result of the pandemic (see the 15-minute City or 20-minute City).

While each of these issues plays out differently depending on the urban context, one dimension may be defining of the pandemic: the need for cities to maintain safe, accessible, well-provisioned public green space, both as a gathering place to support distanced socialising, and as a location where individuals and families, (and their pets), can access healthy exercise and connection with nature.

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Radiant City

The Radiant City or La Ville Radieuse was the ideal of the great modernist architect and planner, Le Corbusier. His vision was for all citizens to be supported by a well-ordered, high-functioning environment. It informed his influential Athens Charter of 1933. The Radiant City is a linear city based on the form of the human body, and espousing concepts such as zoning and high rise living. It influenced Corbusier’s later plans for, among others, the Unité D’Habitation in Marseille and informed the vision of the architects Costa and Niemeyer for the new city of Brasilia in Brazil.  

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Resilient City

Best known through the Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities initiative which launched in 2013, aiming to raise awareness and knowledge exchange by helping cities plan for a wide range of emerging threats to urban centres including terrorism, climate change and economic disruption.

Notably lacking from most plans up to 2020 was the dimension of resilience to disease, although this was swiftly remedied with strong advocacy for tests and treatments for all and a new $1 billion funding stream for pandemic recovery.

Find out more:

  • 100 Resilient Cities by The Rockefeller Foundation
  • Fitzgibbons, J. and Mitchell, C.L. (2019) Just urban futures? Exploring equity in ‘‘100 Resilient Cities”, World Development, 122: 648-659.
  • Jabareen, Y. (2013) Planning the resilient city: Concepts and strategies for coping with climate change and environmental risk, Cities, 31, 220-229.
  • Naef, P. (2022) Resistances in the “Resilient City”: Rise and fall of a disputed concept in New Orleans and Medellin, Political Geography, 122, 102603.
  • Rockefeller Foundation (2022) Covid 19 Response.
  • Vale, L.J. and Campanella, T.J. (2005) The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smart City

This has been defined (Marvin et al., 2015), as “the rebuilding of cities through the integration of digital technologies with buildings, neighbourhoods, networked infrastructures and people.” And “ [It] is being represented as a unique emerging 'solution' to the majority of problems faced by cities today.”

Critiques of the Smart City approach abound, not least that it applies technical solutions to environmental, social and political problems; different case studies from around the world show varied potential to integrate the technology with addressing environmental, technical and socio-political dimensions.

The Cognitive City is a recent, related concept emphasising the self-sensing potentials of smart city technologies.

Find out more:

  • Martin, C.J., Evans, J. and Karvonen, A. (2018) Smart and sustainable? Five tensions in the visions and practices of the smart-sustainable city in Europe and North America, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 133, 269-278.
  • Marvin, S., Luque-Ayala, A. and MacFarlane, C. (2015) Smart City: Utopian Vision or False Dawn? London and New York: Routledge.
  • Portmann, E.and Finger, M. (2016) Towards cognitive cities: advances in cognitive computing and its applications to the governance of large urban systems. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

 

Sustainable City

A term enshrined in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 11, this term encapsulates the three-pillar approach to urban development, balancing social, environmental and economic benefits, while respecting environmental limits. The social aspect highlights the importance of inclusivity  ̶  ensuring that everyone can play an equal role in city life and access to city benefits; the economic aspect highlights growth within environmental limits; while the environmental aspect addresses efficiency in use of resources needed for life such as food, water and energy, while minimising material and energy waste, emissions and pollution.

Find out more:

  • Cohen, S. (2018) The Sustainable City. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • UN Habitat (2020) World Cities Report 2020: The Value of Sustainable Urbanisation. Nairobi, Kenya: UN Habitat.

 

Walkable City

Dovey and Pafka (2020) argue that “the concept of walkability […] remains elusive – it is difficult to define or operationalise. Density, functional mix and access networks are well recognised as key factors: density concentrates more people and places within walkable distances; functional mix produces a greater range of walkable destinations; and access networks mediate flows of traffic between them.” They conclude that  “walkability is a complex and somewhat nebulous set of capacities embodied in any urban morphology, and that it should not be conflated with nor derived from actual levels of walking”.

Speck sets out a range of strategies for city managers to increase their city’s walkability that partly addresses the concept’s limitations.

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Well-run Cities

Like Best Cities, Competitive Cities, Liveable Cities and Innovative Cities, Well-run Cities is the theme of indicator-based rankings, which might be used by prospective city investors, or businesses and private individuals seeking the most beneficial municipality for relocation. The Well-run Cities list has been produced by a global property consultancy JLL since 2013 and was cited by the World Economic Forum in 2017. Ten key attributes of cities with a largely competitive focus were weighed up to create the JLL rankings: the ability to foster innovation pathways; uncovering / attracting talent; investing in infrastructure;  planning for resilience in the face of change; good governance; ensuring transparency; becoming a smart city; keeping the city affordable; building a brand; and global influence.

Best-run Cities, by contrast, is a ranking applied by the credit information service WalletHub to 150 top US Cities and focuses on a more diverse and socially-oriented range of indicators: 1) Financial Stability, 2) Education, 3) Health, 4) Safety, 5) Economy and 6) Infrastructure & Pollution. Consequently, New York, although second in the (competitive-focus) Well-run cities ranking in 2017, came in the third from the bottom of the list of the (socially-oriented) 150 Best-run US cities - highlighting the importance of scrutinising the range of indicators sourced for such rankings.

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World City

This is a term that has been in use since the late 19th century and originally meant that a city had a key role in the global economic network, although it is now more focused on economic heft and the existence of high tech infrastructure. Highlighting the links between cities in globalisation, cognate terms for a world city have been listed as global city (a term particularly linked with prominent cities theorist Saskia Sassen), power city and alpha city.

It remains to be seen whether the ‘on-shoring’ or ‘de-globalisation’ trends that have resulted from recent, widespread supply chain disruptions will lead to a further reframing of this term. 

Find out more:

  • Knox, P.L. and Taylor, P.A. (2009) World Cities in a World-System. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sassen, S. (1991) The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.