Scientific American on The Future of Cities

Last month’s issue of Scientific American (September 2011) is devoted to cities.

The articles are a moving testament to cities as liberating spheres for entrepreneurship, health, happiness, wealth, and cultural and technological innovation.

Those interested in Free Cities will find especially interesting the articles by Edward Glaeser (author of Triumph of the City)  on education and innovation, and Robert Neuwirth (author of Shadow Cities and the important soon-to-be-released work Stealth of Nations) on the ‘informal economy’ of developing-world cities.

Cities offer a bright future for mankind, especially the world’s poorest. Entrepreneurial Free Cities and Charter Cities are an indispensable tool for bringing the environmental, cultural, and economic blessings of urbanization around the world.

Where static, conservative thinkers of the past feared the sweeping dynamism and bustle of growing urban centers, today’s world demands cities: in the words of Scientific American’s editors:

the city has come to look less like a source of problems than as an opportunity to fix them.