More than half of the global population already lives in urban areas, a figure that will reach two-thirds by mid-century, the vast majority of that shift taking place in Asia and Africa. But what we want from a modern city has changed vastly in just a few decades.
Gone are the days when growth — in output, in income, in size — was the sole yardstick. City dwellers now demand complexity, a blended lifestyle where they may work, live and play in spaces that overlap in terms of purpose.
“Thriving cities are transitioning from growth-centric to resilience-centric planning,” notes Dr Carles Vergara-Alert, a professor of financial management in the IESE Business School at the University of Navarra. “They adapt through flexible land use, technological integration and community engagement.”
IESE has put out the Cities in Motion Index for the past decade, r
