The COVID-19 pandemic
radically changed our relationship with cities. This should not be news to
anyone, but the changes will have long-lasting effects on the global economy
and, perhaps more importantly, the production of culture.
اضافة اعلان
In the West, cities are critical hubs of commerce
and intellectual activity. From office space to corner restaurants, cities
require a constant stream of workers to function at their full potential.
Remote work and the rise of digital nomads changed this equation and now many
Western cities are struggling to find their raison d’être in the post-pandemic
landscape.
We expect too much of new buildings, the famed
American urbanist Jane Jacobs said, and too little of ourselves. In the wake of
the pandemic, her observation is poignant. There is no easy infrastructural
solution to this crisis of urban identity and the decline of Western cities.
Creating new buildings will not bring workers and intellectuals back in the
West. This is all the more pressing given the incredible forecasts for urban
growth in other parts of the world.
The World Bank says that seven out of 10 people in
the world will live in a city by 2050, and most will be located in emerging
markets, such as Africa and Southeast Asia.
While many companies are working tirelessly to
attract employees back to the office, many workers around the world appear to
be happy to even exchange pay cuts for more flexibility with remote work. At
the same time, digital nomads have carved out a nice corner of the labor market
that enables them to live around the world while maintaining full employment on
gig contracts. If you can earn an American salary while living in Mexico or
Indonesia, why would you ever return to the US?
How this will transform labor markets over the next
decade is anyone’s guess, but it is clear it will have a major effect.
The rise of digital nomads and decline of the city
is not solely the fault of COVID-19. At the start of the pandemic, Politico
noted that “for the first time since the earliest cities emerged in the Fertile
Crescent some 6,000 years ago, concentrated urban centers no longer have a
monopoly on the economic and cultural connections that make civilizations tick
forward”.
What is missing in this assessment is which cities
have lost their monopoly. The slow decay of cities is apparent in the West, but
not so in emerging markets. From Lagos to Dubai, there are new centers of
economic and cultural capital rapidly taking shape.
The planners and municipal authorities of these news
beacons of urban activity understand full well the historic transformation
taking shape. That is why cities like Tallinn, Dubai, Singapore, and Reykjavik
have made concrete efforts to attract digital nomads through favorable visas
and employment schemes. A savvy digital nomad can register a virtual business
in Dubai and bounce between the UAE and various megacities in Africa with
relative ease.
For the first time since the earliest cities emerged in the Fertile Crescent some 6,000 years ago, concentrated urban centers no longer have a monopoly on the economic and cultural connections that make civilizations tick forward.
As the lights dim in the West, they shine brighter
in the East. There are several fascinating dynamics at work from the cultural
perspective. For one thing, all this new activity is taking place in young
cities. Many emerging market cities have established prominence only in the
past few decades.
If one looks at Abu Dhabi, the transformation has
taken place quickly. What was once a sleepy fishing village is now home to
powerful cultural institutions such as the Louvre. There are ample
state-supported cultural foundations. New cultural districts have been created
with unusual speed, which begs the question of how artists and intellectuals
will engage with them.
Jacobs, in her masterwork “The death and life of
great American cities”, argued that cities need to grow organically through
wise urban planning that considers the role of the individual. With the right
infrastructure in place, culture would grow like healthy seeds planted in
fertile soil.
While incredible amounts of money have been invested
in cities like Abu Dhabi, it is unclear how exactly cultural production will
flourish, especially given the divergence in perspectives between local
cultural attitudes and those of the West. In other words, will previously New
York based artists be able to fully express themselves in Abu Dhabi or Lagos?
It is time to stop bemoaning the decline of cities
and what it means for cultural production. Some cities are struggling for
myriad reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic, but new ones are on the rise.
These new urban centers from the Gulf to South America will leave their stamp
on the next wave of culture, which will be defined by the unprecedented
interconnection between people thanks to the internet and travel. Instead of
thinking about what was, it is time to start planning what will be.
Joseph Dana is the
former senior editor of Exponential View, a weekly newsletter about technology
and its impact on society. He was also the editor-in-chief of Emerge85, a lab
exploring change in emerging markets and its global impact. Twitter: @ibnezra. Syndication Bureau.
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