Question

What roles do production and consumption play in the development of cities throughout history? How have those roles changed over time?

Answer 1

During the industrial era, cities grew rapidly and became centers of population and production. The growth of modern industry from the late 18^th century onward led to massive urbanization and the rise of new, great cities, first in Europe, and then in other regions, as new opportunities brought huge numbers of migrants from rural communities into urban areas. In 1800, only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities. Since the industrial era, that figure, as of the beginning of the 21^st century, has risen to nearly 50%. The United States provides a good example of how this process unfolded; from 1860 to 1910, the invention of railroads reduced transportation costs and large manufacturing centers began to emerge in the United States, allowing migration from rural to urban areas.

Cities also dominate the national economic output as they account for the bulk of the production, distribution and consumption. Urban mobility problems have increased proportionally, and in some cases exponentially, with urbanization since mobility demands are concentrated over a specific area

Cities experience shocks to individual production or consumption amenities which induce population inflows or outflows.

Cities are increasingly emerging as focal points for transitions towards sustainability. More than half of the global population lives in cities and their numbers are increasing both relatively and absolutely. Cities are, and have always been, centres for technological, institutional and social innovations; cities are hubs for science, technology, arts, business, governments, experimentation and learning. They have been stressed by waves of migration and, especially in the global south, by the challenge to create jobs and livelihoods. Cities promise modern lifestyles and a better tomorrow which attracts young people from the countryside. Most consumers live in cities; and urban consumption patterns and lifestyles are driven by technological and social innovations, fashions and styles. Already consumption is moving from products to services; most of these are provided locally within cities. It may be paradoxical that although urban lifestyles are often associated with high footprints, many (but not all) sustainable solutions and lifestyles are also pioneered in cities. Production and supply chains of consumer goods are also getting more complex and span the entire world, far beyond city boundaries. However, the existing urban sustainability literature tends to focus more on eco-efficient production of goods, the built environment, urban form and infrastructure to find solutions for reducing energy, emissions and materials demand, which is in line with the thinking of ecological modernization. For reasons sketched above this approach is problematic.

Population increase is taking place mainly in emerging economies. It has a huge effect on consumption and impacts. Under current conditions in the United States, for example, each child adds about 9441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the carbon legacy of an average female, which is 5.7 times her lifetime emissions . However, affecting the birth rates involves serious moral and ethical aspects, but research shows that growing welfare and gender equity will slow down this increase.

Urban lifestyles are therefore increasingly important for the sustainability of current and future consumption and production systems. In the near and medium-term future, lifestyles in many cities are likely to be affected by ongoing secular stagnation, the expanding labour-market informalization, increasing social vulnerability and inequalities, and further societal disembedding. We are likely to see during this timeframe the deepening of tendencies toward centralization and power asymmetries, the intensifying of complexity and speed, the accelerating accumulation of risks, and the expanding scope of ecological and social threats.

Environmental-economic accounting methods that support analysing the ‘urban metabolism’ have been an important area of sustainability research in the past few years. However, these existing methodological approaches are not yet standardised and often require a large amount of data, emphasising the need for developing consistent and broadly implementable methods across urban areas world-wide. Another point is that cities, even more than countries, now are embedded in global value networks and hence make use of a considerable ‘hinterland’ where resources are extracted and substances are emitted satisfying their final consumption. It is hence essential to use consumption based accounting methods to understand the environmental footprint of consumption and production activities in cities. Typical indicators for consideration are the carbon, material, water and land footprint of consumption.

In the developed world urban food growing is becoming popular perhaps for three reasons: firstly by the middle classes the appreciation that urban food cultivation can re-establish the link between food production and consumption, especially for children, encouraging them to adopt a more healthy diet; to supply free, fresh food for those in poverty and perhaps already relying upon food banks; and ironically for high end restaurants.

To reduce their environmental impact future urban dwellers will increasingly grow food within, or at least in the immediate hinterlands, of their cities to avoid the CO₂ emissions associated with food transportation especially over transcontinental distances . It is estimated that each 1 Calorie of consumed food uses currently 10 Calories of oil But where ground is at a premium, food production might be integrated into future cities by ‘Vertical Farming’, i.e. multi-tier city farms in the form of glass protected skyscrapers or high rise towers that grow the maximum amount of on a minimum land area Although one dedicated vertical farm could feed up to 50,000 people it is still likely that it will be beneficial for all buildings in future to have space reserved for food production.

The Role of production and consumption still exists and has not changed much over the period of time. These are the main indicators for the development of countries as well.