Globalization and Urban Development Dr. Adnan A. Alshiha

Its all about decision making What is a decision? Choices Why we need to make decisions? Scarcity What is scarcity? Limited resources facing unlimited wants Why we need to be concern with globalization? Externality

Definitions Globalization: (Externality) People around the globe are more connected to each other than ever before. Information and money flow more quickly than ever. Goods and services produced in one part of the world are increasingly available in all parts of the world. International travel is more frequent. International communication is commonplace.

Definitions contnd… Urban: At minimum imply a dense concentration (agglomeration ) of people and activities. Why? Urbanization: Shifting population balance between urban and rural areas

Definitions contnd… Development: discovering potentials Economics: utilization of resources Politics: Public choices

Context for Urban Development Globalization No ‘one - size – fit all’ definition Fusion of many complex Time / Space compression in contrast with ‘Localities’ Can be viewed three ways: Economic Political Cultural

Context for Urban Development Contd… Characteristic of globalization Social relation becoming more intensified Redefinition of global – local relationship “Economic” plays an important role Changing roles for nation- state Regional Disparities emphasizes Globalization modifies cities but , cities also modify and embed globalization within local context

‘Triggers’ Factors behind Globalization ‘Trigger’ factors underlie globalization and thus, urban change ‘Trigger’ factors are: Economy Most important New role for cities

‘Trigger’ Factors contd… Technology Emergence of telecommunications New international division of labor Demography Direct influence on urban development Movement of people shapes size, configuration, and structure of cities Synonymous relationship between urban dwelling and quality of life

‘Trigger’ Factors contd… Politics Cities reflect the political ideology of the society. Social Social attitude can influence character of town and cities. Can influence migration patterns, internal structure of city.

‘Trigger’ Factors contd… Culture Increase in materialism Environment Exist at many geographical scales Threat of global environmental change influencing urban infrastructure project ‘Local’ important too eg. local legislative issues

Realities of the 21st Century Donovan D. Rypkema First, the 21st century will be a globalized economy. Second, the most significant impacts of the global economy will be local. Third, there will be a rapidly growing demand for products worldwide. But the manufacture of those products will require fewer and fewer people. Fourth, the areas of the economy that will grow, both in output and in employment are these: services; ideas; one-of-a-kind products, individually produced; culture; entertainment; communications; travel; education.

Five principles for success The cities and their citizens who will be successful in the 21st century’s economic development will be those that recognize the four realities discussed above, and who respond by embracing five principles.

The first principle is globalization itself. To adopt globalization as a principle allows a city the opportunity to identify which of its own characteristics can be competitive in the global marketplace and to establish measures that reduce the adverse impacts of a globalized economy.

The second principle is localization. The definition of what “economic development” means needs to be localized. It must be specific and measurable. Many local economic development yardsticks in the 21st century will be qualitative rather than quantitative. Localization will always necessitate identifying assets (human, natural, physical, locational, functional, cultural) that can be utilized to respond to globalization. Those assets must first be identified, then protected, and then enhanced.

Diversity is the third of these principles. The concept of diversity has three different facets in relation to economic development principles: As populations are more mobile and more diverse there will need to be an accommodation of human diversity in economic development. Cities must have a diverse local economy in order to provide protection from the volatile patterns of demand in the marketplace. With economic globalization as a given, Successful economic development will specialize and customize to meet the needs of diverse markets rather than standardize and homogenize.

The fourth principle of economic development is sustainability. Sustainability has for some time been recognized by resource-based industries because they find it necessary to pace extraction or renew resources to keep the economy sustainable over the long term. A broadened principle of sustainability recognizes the importance of the functional sustainability of : public infrastructure, the fiscal sustainability of a local government, the physical sustainability of the built environment, and the cultural sustainability of local traditions, customs, and skills.

The final principle is responsibility The vast majority of efforts of enhancing a city’s economy will take place at the local level. This, then, requires that each city takes a large measure of responsibility for its own economic future. Certainly local government has a part to play in that process, but so does the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and individual citizens. Each should recognize the responsibility at the local level to define and pursue citywide and metropolitan economic development strategies.

Five Senses of Competitive Cities In the past the economic fate of a city was largely driven by locational and resource factors. Is it near a port? Is there timber to be cut? Is transportation available by waterway? Is there metal that can be mined? Certainly these and similar factors will continue to play a major role in the economic future for many locations. in the 21st century there will be a shift from location economics to place economics. The most important variables will be qualitative and place-based rather than quantitative and location-based. These are referred to as the Five Senses of Competitive Cities and will, in the intermediate and long term, have considerable impact on the economic health of cities.

The first sense is the Sense of Place. Both the built and natural environment will need to be used to express the particularity of this place. There should be a feeling that this city is neither “anyplace” nor “no place” but “someplace,” unduplicated anywhere. Four hundred years ago the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno recognized that “Where there is no differentiation, there is no distinction of quality.”

The second sense is the Sense of Identity. In economics it is the differentiated product that commands a monetary premium. A city that in the long term wants to be a “valuable place,” however that is defined, needs to identify the attributes that add to its differentiation from anywhere else. The cultural as well as the physical attributes of a city will be critical to that differentiation.  

The third sense is the Sense of Evolution. Quality, living cities will neither be frozen in time as museum relics nor look like they were built yesterday. The physical fabric of a city should reflect its functional, cultural, aesthetic, and historical evolution.

The fourth sense is the Sense of Ownership. If there must be responsibility exercised at the local level to create and benefit from economic health, then there has to be a sense of ownership of the city by each of the sectors. This does not mean ownership in a legal or property sense, but ownership more broadly, or citizenship: a feeling of an individual stake arising from that particular place and fellow citizens. A former mayor, Daniel Kemmis — a US politician who is also a scholar — wrote in The Good City and the Good Life, “A good city has always been one that teaches citizenship, in the deepest sense of the word, and such cities are not only teachers, but are themselves always learning how to be better cities."

Finally there is the Sense of Community. A sense of ownership acknowledges an individual benefit from, an individual stake in, and an individual responsibility for one’s place. A sense of community acknowledges the obligations to and interconnectedness with the other residents of that place. Robert Bellah concluded in his book, Habits of the Heart, “Communities, in the sense in which we are using the term, have a history — in an important sense they are constituted by their past — and for this reason we can speak of a real community as a 'community of memory', one that does not forget its past.”

Your Thoughts…? How do you see Saudi cities cooping with globalization? Is our cities administrative set up capable of facing the challenges endured by globalization? How do you assess the current urban development efforts in Saudi cities? Any comments…?