ABSTRACT
The State of the World’s Cities 2008/2009: Harmonious Cities of United Nations (2008) elegantly brings out the salience of cities as well as the critical function of planning in making and keeping ‘their ascent into greatness’:
Cities contain both order and chaos. In them reside beauty and ugliness, virtue and vice. They can bring out the best or the worst in humankind. They are the physical manifestation of history and culture and incubators of innovation, industry, technology, entrepreneurship and creativity. Cities are the materialization of humanity’s noblest ideas, ambitions and aspirations but when not planned or governed properly, can be a repository of society’s ills. Cities drive national economies by creating wealth, enhancing social development and providing employment but they can also be the breeding grounds for poverty, exclusion and environmental degradation.
