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Urban studies: Diverse cities, successful cities

Nature Human Behaviour volume 1, Article number: 0022 (2017) Cite this article

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A new theory of city size, embodying ideas from economic complexity and cultural evolution, provides a rich basis for speculating on their economic structure and suggests hints as to how old cities might regenerate their past prosperity and how new ones might generate more success.

How is that some cities that were once successful and prosperous descend into an economic morass of depression, poverty and unemployment while a few cities seem to turn themselves around and become ever more prosperous? Declining cities like Detroit (pictured, right) and Liverpool spring to mind, with the conventional wisdom being that when such cities lose their industrial base — their external markets for the goods they produce and the services they offer — this often occurs through no fault of their own. Those that do resist such decline, such as New York City (pictured, left), seem to self-generate their industrial bases as they grow to embrace new technologies and more innovative pursuits, but the seeds of their change are still barely understood.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michael Batty is at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis in the Bartlett School, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.,

    Michael Batty

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  1. Michael Batty
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Correspondence to Michael Batty.

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Batty, M. Urban studies: Diverse cities, successful cities. Nat Hum Behav 1, 0022 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0022

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0022

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