Are cities the new countries?

Do big cities have more in common with each other than with the rest of their own countries?
Are there meaningful comparisons between cities such as New York, London and Shanghai, rather than between nation states?
That is the suggestion of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Such mega-conurbations have bigger populations and economies than many individual countries – and the think tank argues that they face many similar challenges, whether it is in transport, housing, security, jobs, migration or education.
In a report on global trends shaping education, the OECD says cities could learn from each other’s experiences, in a way that would be impossible at the level of national politics.
“Sharing policy lessons across countries is hard, because policy is so much framed in terms of ideology and political parties,” says Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s education director.
“When we talk about countries, it’s often about what separates us, language and culture. But when you talk about cities, we face very similar challenges.”
They are the upsides and downsides of immense concentrations of people living in a small space, often two sides of the same coin.
There are more jobs, but also more unemployed. There are extremes of wealth and poverty. There are highly developed transport systems and then overcrowding as they struggle to cope with the demand.
The bright lights, the economy and innovation attract people which leads to extra pressures on housing and services and arguments over the levels of migration.
Modern mega-cities are highly connected places, but with corresponding levels of people who feel dangerously disconnected.
These are issues that the OECD says could be more usefully examined at a city level.
“If you think of security, terrorism and radicalisation, it’s not going to be a challenge for the villages of England or France – it’s going to be large metropolitan areas that are going to have to deal with this.
“The world is much more of a global village when you talk about cities.”
In education, Mr Schleicher says comparisons between cities are particularly relevant.
“Why is it that city schools in London are so much better than city schools in New York? We should be asking ourselves that question.”
The OECD’s figures show how the economic activity of metropolitan areas account for a disproportionate slice of national wealth. In France and Japan, 70% of GDP growth between 2000 and 2010 was attributed to their big cities.
And there are forecasts for even more urbanisation, tipping even more of the economic strength into these city states.
The metropolitan areas of Mexico City, Delhi, Shanghai and Tokyo already have populations above 20 million, bigger than most European countries.
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