Policy interventions to contemporary social and spatial challenges are frequently grafted on the definition of areas as urban, semi-urban or rural. The latest seminar, jointly organised by the Spatial Planning and Strategy research chair and EPRC, presented a radical alternative to classifying territorial units. Lewis Dijkstra, Head of the Economic Analysis Sector of the DG for Regional and Urban Policy in the European Commission, delivered a talk with the provoking title Everything you heard about global urbanisation is wrong. The presentation was based on extensive spatial analysis of cities and rural areas around the world, in a joint effort by the World Bank, UN Habitat, OECD, FAO, ILO, and the European Commission. Around 110 people attended the seminar online, showing how the ‘quarantine academy’ can attract new audiences from around the world.
The seminar was chaired by Eva Purkarthofer, while EPRC’s Martin Ferry and TU Delft researcher Alexander Wandl opened the conversation as discussants. The audience raised thought-provoking questions, for instance about the political sensitivity of a new urban definition, ramifications for urbanisation levels and EU sentiment, and the impact of the coronavirus on urban indicators such as commuting. Martin Ferry, Senior Research Fellow at EPRC, raised the importance of delineation and integration of multi-level policy strategies, to which a more uniform urban definition may be crucial. Part of his intervention referred to his recent work on the performance of Integrated Territorial Development Strategies (see study and blog post).
You can find the recorded seminar and presentation slides.
The seminar was the fourth in a joint series ‘Contemporary challenges in European spatial development’, organised by the Spatial Planning & Strategy chair in Delft’s Urbanism Department and EPRC Delft. The series are managed by EPRC Director John Bachtler and Marcin Dąbrowski, Assistant Professor in the Urbanism Department of TU Delft. As the EPRC base at the Technical University of Delft is built up, EPRC is developing its cooperation with Dutch government and academic networks. The lecture by a representative of the European Commission, leading on regional economic analysis, is an example of the new opportunities provided by our new connections.
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Abstract
The UN Statistical Commission endorsed the first ever global definition of cities, towns and rural areas earlier this year. This presentation will show why this new definition is sorely needed and what we can learn from it. Most analysis of global urbanisation relies on data collected by the UN based on national definitions. This new global definition reveals which national definitions produce similar urban and rural population shares and which lead to radically different ones. This new definition goes beyond the traditional urban-rural dichotomy and captures the urban-rural continuum. Comparisons with national definitions show that it is the middle category, i.e. towns and semi-dense areas, is the most contested. Some countries consider it as entirely urban, while others insist it is fully rural. Also the past and future changes in urbanisation are radically different when using this new definition. The UN figures show a rapidly urbanising world with a shrinking rural population. In contrast, the new definition shows a world that already has a large share of its population in cities, towns and semi-dense areas and shows much more moderate changes with cities growing, but more slowly and rural areas continuing to grow instead of declining. The presentation concludes with an overview of the broader implications of this new definition and the next steps to take this forward.
Lewis Dijkstra is the Head of the Economic Analysis Sector of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy in the European Commission. He is the editor of the Cohesion Report, which analyses economic, social and environmental issues in EU regions and cities. He is also a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. His recent work covers topics such as a global definition of cities and rural areas, measuring transport performance, the geography of EU discontent, quality of government and gender equality.
