The World of Cities

In 2050, everything is ready for the world of cities. Nation-states are defunct, borders abolished, passports destroyed, and people are nervous: will the world of cities hold its promises? Will the way we move and dwell finally mean the same for everyone? While the world is holding its breath, a city-zen reflects on historical changes, big hopes, and potential worries.

It started 30 years ago. A small timespan, considering the huge step that we were making, as we were moving away from nation-stations towards the world of cities. When COVID-19 emerged for the first time, most national governments responded by taking measures against global and local movements. While some people were already used to experiencing mild to severe restrictions on movement e.g. relative to the mobility score of their passport, or to their capacity to be mobile or remain immobile by choice, as suggested by Joelle Moret in 2017 – for others this was completely new. Particularly in the OECD area, more people experienced the dividing and excluding powers of nation-states (Wellman & Cole 2011) and their borders than ever before (OECD 2020).

During the pandemic, the media covered extensively families and international couples separated by borders, asylum seekers, international students, and migrant domestic workers struggling to reach their destination. The mobility regulations triggered by COVID-19 made people everywhere experience that space and access to space are profoundly political. After the seventh mutation of COVID-19, when cities proved to respond quicker and more effectively to the spread of the virus than nation-states, the idea of a world of cities emerged.

The World of Cities

The world of cities is based on the idea of “global cities” (Sassen 1991) and promises a new way of living, including less constrained mobilities of people, goods, data and information, services, and money. Membership, and thus having a voice in a local community, depends solely on who is living in the respective city, town, or village (Bauböck 2010).

Two levels of jurisdiction exist: urban, which applies to all human beings physically living in that jurisdiction, and global, which applies to every human being. The global jurisdiction deals with universal issues that simply cannot be dealt with at the local level, such as climate and migration. Many more conventions like the Global Migration Compact will emerge in the future. Cities, global public organizations, private companies, and every person must comply with these global conventions.

Any evidence of borders – the territorial boundaries of nation-states – were erased. While cities and towns have somewhat of a territorial boundary, it is defined only by the usage of space which is free to grow and shrink, relative to its neighborhood. While its territory is controlled occasionally for security reasons, anyone can come and go freely – if no charges against the person exist. While individuals are free to be as mobile as they please, they have a main place of residence where they vote and pay taxes. The local political system takes on nearly all bureaucratic tasks historically covered by the nation-state. While individuals are enjoying more freedom of movement, political institutions, however, are bound to global conventions and anyone can bring charges against a city that does not comply.

Digital collaboration leads to more people working from where they choose to live, fostering rich cultural diversity, not only in city centers but also in some peripheries, while phone apps facilitate breaking down language barriers. The welfare system also operates on both levels, locally and globally, and there is talk of a global basic income system on the horizon. People and companies are now taxed locally and globally, with the latter being used for the sustainability of the global conventions. The interconnected existence of different global compacts and independent cities protects individuals from abuse and inequities in the distribution of goods and services, access to institutions and space, and life opportunities.

Being a Member of the Glocal Community

Like all around me, I cannot yet foresee whether the advantages this new world of cities promises may be overshadowed by its potential pitfalls. Will there still be war? Will urban planning and housing markets avoid overcrowded or abandoned cities? Will the infrastructural and the demographic transition be smooth or highly disruptive? Will urban citizenship be more inclusive than that of nation-states? Will global public organizations be just and legitimate? Will corruption be cut down?

Only time will tell, and there are inevitably going to be problems with any societal system. However, in looking back, the pre-COVID-19 time seems like out of a tale. Nowadays, people do not understand how only 30 years ago colonial legacies were so heavily defended, to the point of believing that this was the only way human cohabitation and interaction could take place.

Who would have thought that a microscopic virus would finally make us acknowledge the macroscopic problem of uneven mobilities and the need for mobility justice (Sheller 2018)? Who would have thought that borders were unnecessary for people to lead a decent life, for economies to function, and for a political system to work? Who would have thought that passports would turn into a historical object in museums, titled “the nation class system for dividing and degrading human beings”? And, who would have thought that in becoming global citizens, we would also become local city-zens, members of different cities, towns, and villages? We are about to become part of the glocal community; let us see if the world of cities holds its promises.

Petra Sidler is a doctoral candidate at the University of Neuchâtel and a fellow of the nccr – on the move and contributes to the project Overcoming Inequalities in the Labor Market: Can Educational Measures Strengthen the Agency and Resilience of Migrants, Refugees, and their Descendants

References:

– Baubock, R. (2003). Reinventing Urban Citizenship, Citizenship Studies 7(2), 139–160.
– Moret, J. (2020). Mobility Capital: Somali Migrants’ Trajectories of (Im) Mobilities and the Negotiation of Social Inequalities Across Corders. Geoforum 116, 235–242.
– OECD (2020). International Migration Outlook 2020. OECD Publishing.
– Sassen, S. (1991). The Global City. New York.
– Sheller, M. (2018). Mobility Justice: The Politics of Movement in an Age of Extremes. Verso Books.
– Wellman, C. H. & Cole, P. (2011). Debating the Ethics of Immigration: Is there a Right to Exclude? Oxford University Press.