Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2018 | Page 9

Power is shifting in the world:
downward from national governments
and states to cities and metropolitan
areas. Add to that, a horizontal push
from the public sector to networks of
public, private and civic actors; and,
finally, the global circuits of capital,
trade and innovation. The end result
here is obvious – we are witnessing
the century of the cities.
T
his is the world according to Bruce J.
Katz, Centennial Scholar at the Brook-
ings Institution, where he focuses on
the challenges and opportunities of global
urbanisation. Having co-authored The Met-
ropolitan Revolution (with Jennifer Bradley)
five years ago, Katz is one of the most out-
spoken protagonists fo r the modern-day city.
“Cities are the leading forces in the
world today, because they don’t only
rely on traditional forms of government
power.  They also have market power – the
agglomeration of assets that drive econo-
mies – and civic power meaning the concen-
tration of networks of institutions and also
leaders that solve problems through inte-
grated rather than compartmentalised solu-
tions,” he argues.
More recently, Katz teamed up with
researcher Jeremy Nowak for The New
Localism: How Cities Thrive in the Age of
Populism. In this upcoming book, the duo
puts forth their thesis that cities now form
that key level of society that must address
the challenges which are characteristic of
modern societies: economic opportunity,
social inclusion, a renewed public life, the
challenge of diversity and the imperative
of environmental sustainability. Katz and
Nowak call this trend “The New Localism”.
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