The Rise of the Megacity

In the developing world, where many of the world's emerging megacities can be found, "poor rural families flooding into the world's urban population centres bring challenges that have never before been seen – nor met."

"Optimists see a new network of powerful, stable and prosperous city states, each bigger than many small countries, where the benefits of urban living, the relative ease of delivering basic services compared to rural zones and new civic identities combine to raise living standards for billions. Pessimists see the opposite: a dystopic future where huge numbers of people fight over scarce resources in sprawling, divided, anarchic "non-communities" ravaged by disease and violence."