Philosophy and Technology: Why Must Cities Be “Diverse” in Order to Survive, Essay Example

What do you feel about cities like London, Los Angeles, New York and the host of others? They portray a highly cosmopolitan environment with densely diverse cultural, social and economic integration. These are all covenants of economic and social paradise. Why? What has been the major reason behind the success of these cities? According to Jane Jacobs, “Diversity not only makes cities more appealing but is the source of economic productivity.” Thus, she links physical, economic, and social diversity as the key player in the development of cities. Diversity is the dichotomy of the modern day guide for survival and prosperity of cities. It is like a ‘welcome flag’ of the city draped in the warmth and friendly vibes of the people. Culture, traits and creative influence percolates in these cities easily and make them more mature and stable. Ideas, technology and knowhow strengthen the foundation of the city. According to Bonnie Kahn, “A great city has two hallmarks: tolerance for strangers and intolerance for mediocrity.”

Let us now understand what do we mean by diversity? What is the nature of a diverse city? A city rich in diversity looks like a cosmopolitan…with one corner of the street having a Thai Cuisine while the other Mexican. Essentially we see a mixed group of intermingling people, with diverse culture and emotions. Thus, a diverse city has characteristics of flexibility, have great concern and ambition for a better quality of life, a spirit to bring about a positive change; they are flexible, frank, quickly responds to new circumstances, adjustability and giving little importance to rigid ideological doctrines. To them life and complacent living and emotions of the real people or the masses are important. They flow like a river, in the new current of diversity and acknowledge the benefits in the process. For instance New York…what vibes does the city give?  It is vibrant, colorful and a combination of various culture and people. It has that warm feeling of openness and flexibility. It is not rigid and thus could optimize the social, economic diversity in its city making and is one of the most diverse and successful cities in the world. New York has never been skeptical and afraid of accepting change… in regards to infrastructure, planning, buildings and social framework. They did not hide behind traditional rigidity of population influx in fear of its after effects. Rightly said by Max Page, in his study on the redevelopment of New York, “the fundamental tension between a celebration of the metropolis – its dynamism and diversity – and a profound nostalgia born of a fear for what the modern city portended.”

It is true that diversity creates lively cities. But our next evaluation would be on the conditions important for city diversification. According to Jacobs, “districts must serve more than one primary function to ensure presence of people using the same common facilities at different times. It implies that the common platforms like office, housing and public transport can help people mitigate and common to a common platform. Here they can share and exchange ideas and culture. Secondly she stresses on the “Most blocks must be short; that is, streets and opportunities to turn must be frequent”…meaning that people meet each other more occasionally. Thirdly, “The district must mingle buildings that vary in age and condition,” implying that older buildings need to be renovated and should not be secluded. There should be a balance between the ratios of older buildings to newer ones. Fourthly she says, “There must be sufficiently dense concentration of people, for whatever purposes they may be there..implying people living in condominiums or housings interact more with each other and develop a mixed culture.

Now the question is what efforts are needed to be taken to further develop diversity? There should be more opportunities for cross fertilization of cultures, imbibing intercultural decisions and policies to percolate in local institutions, to be more active in accepting diverse population, giving more platform for intercultural exchanges and involve the diverse people in the formulation of policies of the government.

How is diversity important? Diversity now represents the new portfolio, or rather a revolutionized principle that urge the city planners to concentrate more on the development of the city. The constant demand for urban settlements and other facilities, make an obvious implication on their side to mitigate the demands and be responsive to the basic as well as other preferential needs of the people. Diversity makes the population very vibrant and creates incessant and regular need to modify and add to the list of essentials required for further developing the city. For example, diversity implies that a large section would prefer cars and there would be huge pressure of traffic on roads. To mitigate the situation, city planners have to formulate bridges to make the life and journey comfortable as well as short. There would be a large percentage who would rely on public transport.. so the planners also have to develop metros and buses and roads to manage the pressure on public transport. Thus one by one, each of the requirements of the diverse population leads to the continuous development of the city and does not isolate the process of regular development of the city.

Now suppose there is a choice between cities of San Francisco and New York. Which is better and more suitable for living? New York has an extensive system of public transport and thus the choices of people residing there are varied. You can opt metro, train, bus or the car as per convenience and budget. Time requirements are also well adjusted as the metro comes after every 3 minutes. However in San Francisco there is a different situation. There is a tremendous dependency on cars and the public transport is poor and operates at irrelevant gaps. So a city can lure a person to reside in their city with certain basic factors that makes the life of the person less complicated. Moreover the housing rent of New York is lower as compared to San Francisco. Thus to trap talents and make the city more diverse, a concrete approach and user friendly infrastructure needs to be planned.

What hampers diversity? Historical evidence suggests that the earlier concepts of rigidity that was often practiced with diversity, lead to irreparable damage to a city. The more apprehensive the city was, closing the doors to external influence and settlement led to dullness and stagnation in terms of development of the city. In response to the two broad categories of urban policy – achieving equity and stimulating growth, the main proponent of the admixture and success of both the strategies.

Why Is Diversity Required?

Diversity attracts human capital: A city is known by its reputation of being ‘friendly’ or being ‘rigid’ to diversity. When a country is open to diversity of culture and population, business and potential investors use it as a platform to expand their business. This helps to enhance capital investments in the city. So in a nutshell, diversity attracts the attention of the investors; as they get the combined environment of diverse culture, diverse market potential as well as diverse workforce which are the main parameters of running successful business organizations.

Diversity attracts innovation:  The inclusion of diverse backgrounds and culture make businesses as well as cities rich and prosperous. It is enriched with broader set of opinions, experiences, ideas that helps to bring in new innovations to the economy as well as the city. According to Professor Richard Florida, “cities need to be innovative to be successful. And cultural diversity is an essential ingredient of innovativeness. Only when many different viewpoints, perspectives, and ideas interact with and challenge each other are new ideas created. When everyone is similar, creativity and innovation drop sharply. “

Diversity helps to develop the physical design of a city: Diversity and its traits influence the city to develop its infrastructure, architecture, landscape and housing. It is the conglomerated influence and varied interest that makes the work and city more complete and technologically advanced. It also implies that cities are being upgraded to meet the modern needs of the population.

Diversity is the solution to combat population stress: With the passage of time, cities circumscribe to the population pressure and congestion. Rapid growth of the diverse infrastructural facilities like bridges, roads, trains and technologically advanced means of transport ease the pressure.

What Threatens Opposes or Undermines Diversity?

Diversity has its share of drawbacks. It leads to an influx of people, who clings to their own orthodox outlook and culture. It is difficult to break the ice, and they take a lot of time and motivation to accept the modern philosophy, and adapt to the traits of the new country.  This leads to antagonism, insecurity and feelings of mistrust among the city authorities. These are some of the disadvantages that make the developed cities skeptical to allow migration and enhance diversity. When the city authorities find that their city is being over congested with transport and people, government functions and operations are being perplexed with complex culture interaction and varied demands of diverse groups; the new companies and business posing threat to the existence to their own industry and employment; then they make the walls of their city more rigid and tight to external force and influx. Moreover, the environmental condition of ‘urban sprawl’ that destroys thousands of fertile lands for the settlement of the diverse groups also entails them to hamper and retard the process of diversity. Another possible opposition of diversity is insecurity. The native may feel insecure both in physical and psychological terms. Firstly the migrant population may often pose problems regarding security violation, breaking rules, adapting violent methods that destroy the peace and sanctity of the people living there. Then they may be apprehensive, that the government for reaping personal benefits may provide extra privilege to the diverse groups at the cost of their development, and they are skeptical of the fact that diverse group may even take their share of employment, applaud and property. These are the primary reasons for opposing diversity in countries.

What Role Should Technology Play in This Process?

Technology is the greatest friend of diversity. It works in parallel tandem with the forces of diversity so that the process is saved from being choked or throttled. Diversity is the way while technology is the path..it is the crux of diversity. For example, diversity of people will increase the population of the city which in turn will cause stress to the environment and place. Technology comes as a rescuer..it comes equipped with modern ideas, machinery and knowledge that will remove the obstacles caused due to pressure. Thus bridges, roads, new infrastructure are built; new housing projects are coordinated so that the diverse group and the native people receive the bonus of development. It ensures the smooth, cognizant and unilateral distribution of facilities and opportunities to the entire group of people of the city. According to Obama, The President of United States, “To restore America’s competitiveness, we must recruit a new generation of science and technology leaders by investing in diversity.”

Reference

Lawrence, (2001) The city builders.( 2001.), Last Retrieved on November 10, 2009.

A. Beauregard and S. Body-Gendrot,(1999). Can we make the cities we want?, Last Retrieved on November 10, 2009