Managing metropolises by negotiating urban growth

Two defining influences of the last hundred years have been population growth and rapid urbanization. At the start of the twenty first century, it was recognized, often with an element of shock, that more than half of the world's population had become concentrated in urban areas. It is now clear that this trend is continuing unabated as people move from rural to urban areas, lured by what is perceived as enhanced opportunities. This chapter, based on the work of Metropolis's Commission 2, Managing Urban Growth, explores the importance of managing urban growth as a manifold and integrated process, involving many initiatives and bringing together governments, municipalities, civil society, and business. We begin with a discussion of the challenges, move to discuss the various domains in which urban growth management should be considered, and then emphasize a series of dialectic tensions that require careful negotiation: authority-participation, inclusion-exclusion and needs-limits.