In a globe-trotting narrative alive with on-the-ground reportage,
journalist Saunders offers a cautionary but essentially optimistic
perspective on global urbanization. He concentrates on the slums and
satellite communities that act as portals from villages to cities and,
in turn, revitalize village economies. Policy makers misunderstand at
their peril these "arrival cities".London's heavily Bangladeshi Tower
Hamlets, Brazil's favelas, China's Shenzhen. Citing the statistical
relationship between urbanization and falling poverty rates, as well
as historical precedents like Paris ("the first great arrival city of
the modern world"), Saunders insists urban migration means improvement
overall, and that the arrival city serves as a springboard for the
integration of new populations. While the picture of urbanization
veers from gloomier forecasts by analysts like Mike Davis (Planet of
Slums), it does so by eschewing direct questioning of the global
economic system driving much of this migration. Barely addressed are
food, energy, and water shortages, or the fact that healthy city
growth requires preservation of surrounding ecosystems on which cities
habitually wreak havoc. Saunders's narrative, however, does plead for
rational and humane planning within global capitalism to ensure that
arrival cities fulfill their purpose and achieve their potential.

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