The global development context

Abstract

Global development trends are substantially shaping today’s cities. This chapter presents a brief overview about some of the most dominant development trends influencing the appearance of cities in the Global South and the way they are governed. To start with, the current prospects of population growth and urbanization are discussed as well as their temporal and spatial manifestation. This section is followed by a brief introduction of the on-going processes of democratization and decentralization. Devolution of power and responsibilities from national to local levels has become a dominant approach to satisfy local demands for more autonomy and participation in decision-making. The third section describes the framework conditions characterized by economic globalization and neoliberal policies in which all cities are embedded. The impacts and implications of these trends for urban areas in less-developed countries are discussed in a last section: increasing inequalities, exclusion of significant parts of society and poverty has created fragmented and spatially expanding cityscapes increasingly shaped by segregated spaces for the rich and the poor. These developments pose new challenges for the governance of cities, new obligations for local authorities, but also new possibilities.