This week we are in Mauritania. Welcome to all the participants from Nouakchott! In our video today, we'll talk about globalisation and cities and about the impact of globalisation on urban planning. In today's world, some cities have entered a global competition to attract as much influx as they can: influx of people, influx of goods or influx of capital. This is what makes a city truly global or not. Which means we are going to measure a certain number of indicators, which may be indicators of airport traffic, of capital flows, most of the time, and, increasingly, social indicators telling about the quality of living are used. In this international competition to be a global city strategies are about the same everywhere. And this is what we're going to look at in the following slides. When it comes to globalisation, there are competing theories. Let's have a look at the most common one, and the one that states that globalisation is inevitable. The inevitable globalisation benefits everybody through the trickle-down effect from the richer to the poorer. The globalisation of the economy and of political interactions implies the end of Nation-States. It brings about a new political deal, a new set of interactions, not among nations, but among cities and companies. What impact does it have on planning? Which is what we are interested in. First, we may say that city leaders now want a global city. Everyone tries to be a global city. This implies a concentration of powers and a new approach based on marketing. Cities become commodities that are advertised and sold, which requires an extremely strong power, far from a participatory democracy. We'll come back to all that. But we do notice that it is the wish of most city leaders and that implementing this wish requires power to be placed back at the centre and decision-making to take place at the centre whereas over the past few years the tendency was to try to decentralize and involve as many users as possible. Which means, of course, that the planning scheme changes tack completely, with radically different priorities. Planning is different whether the aim is a global city or a « classic » city. One main aspect is the focus on the richest. The priority is more on high-end housing, extremely expensive leisure aimed at the uppermost classes. Which means cities look for maximization of profits in such a global economy. Each city is trying to position itself within an idea of global competition. Each tries to position itself as far as the economy is concerned, and to attract as many people as possible. And companies are much sought-after. There are several ways to attract companies. One way is to try to put on the market land that is fit for building. The basic infrastructure, the land itself, is made ready so that we can say to such or such company that would like to come that we are ready, we have land available and it's ready to be used. Another way to attract companies are projects that give a positive image of the city. These can be long-term projects, or they can be events. Think of World Cups, Olympics Games, especially, Summer or Winter Olympics, that are associated strictly to a city. Through these events or large projects, the idea is to give or change the image to give a positive image, and especially a dynamic image, to attract as many companies as possible. Another way to attract companies are fiscal incentives. One idea is to lower taxes to make it economically attractive for such or such company to settle in a city. Another possibility is for the city to offer a very high level of services. It means everything is provided: transportation, water supply, power supply, all of which is working well, all of which is available to companies wishing to settle here. Yet another strategy is to go for luxury housing. This is betting, as I mentioned earlier, on the uppermost social classes. To do this, we put on the market a certain number of properties belonging to the type of housing these categories appreciate. Finally, another strategy to attract companies is leisure. The idea is to put on the market a certain number of types of activities that these classes, the elite, like to practice. Putting these activities on the market and making them available may attract people. Of course, it's never a single strategy that is implemented, but it's a combination of several strategies that makes it possible to position oneself on the global market. Here are the rankings. This first one I have already shown in a previous video. We'll just gloss over them to see that there are a few Global Power City Index, and many more. If we want to have a look, just for the sake of it, we see there are always London, New York and Tokyo leading the ranking. Then, usually, follow Paris and Hong Kong. Depending on the ranking, Paris and Hong Kong are higher or lower, compared to New York and London. Another one: Foreign Policy. And the last one, which ranks the cities as Alpha ++, Alpha +, Alpha +, Béta, Gamma regarding a certain number of criteria that are often economic ones but may also be socio-economic criteria. This is how they rank the cities. So there is a major interest for cities to feature in these rankings, and to rank as high as possible. As a comparison, the exact same thing is being done with universities today, for which there are several types of rankings to rank the best universities in the world. Here is the image that captures this global city: inside Dubai airport. Dubai has concentrated its strategy on welcoming influx of tourists, and on welcoming influx of capitals. This image sums up, probably, how Dubai positioned itself regarding globalisation. And what about Africa, will you ask. In some cities we know very well we are far from Hong Kong, New York or London, but we realise on a day-to-day basis that more and more projects are trying to set some cities into this global city race. Strictly speaking, if we consider economic indicators or capital flows, we'll have cities in South Africa, probably cities in North Africa, the few major cities, but overall, most African cities do not feature in the rankings of global cities. However, little by little, there are intents, to change the image of cities through major prestigious projects, to move from a chaotic city to an international city. The most striking example of this, at the moment, is the major project in Tchad of the World Trade Center, where we imagine an exhibition centre, a symposium centre, a ministry, office buildings, a mall, a major hotel, all of it next to the airport of N'Djamena. It is still just a project for the moment. But it shows, with these 3D images, what type of urbanisation African cities want to undergo today. This is an example in Tchad. There is another one in Burkina Faso, There are in Kenya, including in Nairobi, a series of projects. So the idea of the need for an international architecture for major economic projects is now widespread across all African cities.
