n the popular imagination, population growth and urbanization go hand in hand. As populations increase, people move into cities. To a marked degree this has been true. The global urban population in 1950 was a mere 0.75 billion, rising to 4.22 billion in 2018. The scale of urbanization has shaped landscapes and lives, making it the “seminal demographic shift” of our times, and unprecedented in human history. Current projections are that close to 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050.
In countries in Asia and particularly Africa much of the rapid urbanization taking place is unplanned, resulting in informal settlements, or slums, in popular nomenclature. From now until 2050, one million new people will be added to our cities. Every week. South Asia is ahead of Africa in terms of urbanization, with more than half the population now living in urban areas, but even in Africa 43% already live in towns and cities. By 2050, African cities are expected to be home to an additional 950 million people. This urbanization will inevitably lead to young people experiencing increased exposure to toxic water, air and noise pollution, overcrowding, increased water scarcity, lack of clean and protected play and sporting venues, alongside linked changes in social services and political economies. And in the background, looming over all of us, is climate breakdown, and the inevitability of large-scale disruption exacerbating many of these urban risks.
Confronting Biases About Cities
It would not be hyperbolic to claim that for most people, when they think of cities, they see them as toxic. It is rare to read about a ‘crime ridden’ rural village. Even more rare to hear about the uptick in children suffering from pollution induced asthma in a remote desert oasis. There is little question of course, that rapid and unplanned urbanization (exponential expansion of informal settlements) exacerbates risks. But is this the whole story? Of course, there are problems. But for so many, our views about cities often appear to be tainted by a nostalgic (occasionally archetypal) memory of idealized village and country life. What might happen if we looked at cities in new ways? Can we imagine a different type of city?
Adopting an alternative forces us to concede the extent to which throughout history cities have been the foremost site of innovation and engine of wealth creation. In 2017 the theoretical physicist Geoffrey West published “Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies.” In this monumental work he took the well-known fact from biology that when organisms scale (mouse to elephant) they do so with remarkable consistency—an increase in size requires a proportional increase in the energy needed to survive. But the most important part here is that size increase relative to the energy need is not proportional. A quadrupling in size only requires a tripling in energy use. The larger an organism becomes the less energy they need—in other words, they enjoy an economy of scale. Remarkably, the same holds true for cities as they double and quadruple in size. From a sustainability perspective, cities use less energy, per capita, than small towns. According to West “cities create problems as they grow, but they create solutions to those problems even faster.”
One of the ironies of living in a city is the number of people who describe feelings of alienation and loneliness. Is it that feeling alone amongst so many other people that makes loneliness worse? How could it be, that in a place with so many potential social connections, people feel disconnected, and increasingly feel that they know no one that they could turn to in a crisis. Without a feeling of connection, we are likely to feel that we do not belong and perhaps that we do not matter. A sense of belonging is foundational to our wellbeing and to thriving. Might it be possible to imagine cities as possible places of heightened social connectedness, where a deep sense of community has the potential to provide an even deeper sense of belonging?
In October 2019, a group of young people in Nairobi with lived experience, together with young mental health advocates, marched through Nairobi advocating for accessible, affordable and youth friendly mental health care. They also insisted on the importance of creating safe spaces at the community level for youth to gather. The march drew the attention of the County Government as well as other mental health stakeholders. As a direct consequence, the national government set up a taskforce. The youth leaders made key contributions to the task force, resulting in a National Mental Health Action Plan 2021-2025. This is connectedness, collective action, and the active creation of a sense of belonging and mattering that cities can play a role in manifesting.
We are in the midst of what many have described as a polycrisis—“an interconnected web of near simultaneous adversities manifesting interdependently in a globalized world”. Might cities, with their economies of scale, offer a model for a different way of engaging with one another and for organizing ourselves, one based on care, and a deep acknowledgement of our interconnectedness, and how our individual wellbeing is intimately linked to the wellbeing of all other people? If we are to succeed in this, cities are going to be central—and building a city designed for the wellbeing of young people would be a revolutionary achievement for us all.
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Imagining a City Built for the Wellbeing of Young People
Image courtesy of Simon Berger via Unsplash.
October 12, 2023
Cities often pose unique challenges to the mental health of young people, which is a problem given the continued rapid pace of urbanization. Yet cities, with their economies of scale, could also be a powerful tool for bettering the wellbeing of young people, writes Mark Tomlinson.
I
n the popular imagination, population growth and urbanization go hand in hand. As populations increase, people move into cities. To a marked degree this has been true. The global urban population in 1950 was a mere 0.75 billion, rising to 4.22 billion in 2018. The scale of urbanization has shaped landscapes and lives, making it the “seminal demographic shift” of our times, and unprecedented in human history. Current projections are that close to 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050.
In countries in Asia and particularly Africa much of the rapid urbanization taking place is unplanned, resulting in informal settlements, or slums, in popular nomenclature. From now until 2050, one million new people will be added to our cities. Every week. South Asia is ahead of Africa in terms of urbanization, with more than half the population now living in urban areas, but even in Africa 43% already live in towns and cities. By 2050, African cities are expected to be home to an additional 950 million people. This urbanization will inevitably lead to young people experiencing increased exposure to toxic water, air and noise pollution, overcrowding, increased water scarcity, lack of clean and protected play and sporting venues, alongside linked changes in social services and political economies. And in the background, looming over all of us, is climate breakdown, and the inevitability of large-scale disruption exacerbating many of these urban risks.
Confronting Biases About Cities
It would not be hyperbolic to claim that for most people, when they think of cities, they see them as toxic. It is rare to read about a ‘crime ridden’ rural village. Even more rare to hear about the uptick in children suffering from pollution induced asthma in a remote desert oasis. There is little question of course, that rapid and unplanned urbanization (exponential expansion of informal settlements) exacerbates risks. But is this the whole story? Of course, there are problems. But for so many, our views about cities often appear to be tainted by a nostalgic (occasionally archetypal) memory of idealized village and country life. What might happen if we looked at cities in new ways? Can we imagine a different type of city?
Adopting an alternative forces us to concede the extent to which throughout history cities have been the foremost site of innovation and engine of wealth creation. In 2017 the theoretical physicist Geoffrey West published “Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies.” In this monumental work he took the well-known fact from biology that when organisms scale (mouse to elephant) they do so with remarkable consistency—an increase in size requires a proportional increase in the energy needed to survive. But the most important part here is that size increase relative to the energy need is not proportional. A quadrupling in size only requires a tripling in energy use. The larger an organism becomes the less energy they need—in other words, they enjoy an economy of scale. Remarkably, the same holds true for cities as they double and quadruple in size. From a sustainability perspective, cities use less energy, per capita, than small towns. According to West “cities create problems as they grow, but they create solutions to those problems even faster.”
One of the ironies of living in a city is the number of people who describe feelings of alienation and loneliness. Is it that feeling alone amongst so many other people that makes loneliness worse? How could it be, that in a place with so many potential social connections, people feel disconnected, and increasingly feel that they know no one that they could turn to in a crisis. Without a feeling of connection, we are likely to feel that we do not belong and perhaps that we do not matter. A sense of belonging is foundational to our wellbeing and to thriving. Might it be possible to imagine cities as possible places of heightened social connectedness, where a deep sense of community has the potential to provide an even deeper sense of belonging?
In October 2019, a group of young people in Nairobi with lived experience, together with young mental health advocates, marched through Nairobi advocating for accessible, affordable and youth friendly mental health care. They also insisted on the importance of creating safe spaces at the community level for youth to gather. The march drew the attention of the County Government as well as other mental health stakeholders. As a direct consequence, the national government set up a taskforce. The youth leaders made key contributions to the task force, resulting in a National Mental Health Action Plan 2021-2025. This is connectedness, collective action, and the active creation of a sense of belonging and mattering that cities can play a role in manifesting.
We are in the midst of what many have described as a polycrisis—“an interconnected web of near simultaneous adversities manifesting interdependently in a globalized world”. Might cities, with their economies of scale, offer a model for a different way of engaging with one another and for organizing ourselves, one based on care, and a deep acknowledgement of our interconnectedness, and how our individual wellbeing is intimately linked to the wellbeing of all other people? If we are to succeed in this, cities are going to be central—and building a city designed for the wellbeing of young people would be a revolutionary achievement for us all.
