The world’s great cities are inherently dynamic and diverse. They are also naturally open to the world. So how should they respond if their countries seek to close themselves against outsiders? How, more broadly still, should they view their responsibilities to the world?
In The Economy of Cities, the late Jane Jacobs argued that cities have been our engines of economic progress since they were first created, in the neolithic era. She asserted persuasively that cities even invented agriculture.
Yet cities’ economic importance is only the foundation. The first states seem to have been city states. Greek city states invented democracy. Rome, a city state, absorbed the Mediterranean world. Italian city states launched the European Renaissance. “City”, “citizen” and “civilisation” come from the same Latin roots: civis (meaning “citizen”) and civitas (meaning “city state”).