As populations shift to cities, the concept of urbanism begins to take on more relevance across the planet. In a recent book, author Jeb Brugmann explores what urbanism means as a trend and a process.
Policy Innovations corresponded with Brugmann over email to discuss some of the issues related to an urbanizing world.
"Policy Innovations: Corporations and wealthy countries are experimenting with building cities from scratch, many designed along sustainable principles. What must they do to make these places interesting and not just empty green office parks?
Jeb Brugmann: The industrial production of urban space and facilities, with no matter how many bells and whistles, is not the same as the more self-built production of an urbanism by a city-building community. An urbanism, as I define it, is the ways that specific city-building communities design, build, govern, and co-locate activities in customized places to support their specialized forms of production and living. In other words, robust urbanism is user designed and often user built."
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