Think Small, Go Big

Traditionally, issues of governance, planning, and funding of cities are tied to a vision of “metropolis” as a canonical urbanity. Concomitantly, large networks are understood as the default mode for infrastructure service provision. However, data from e-geopolis and associated research indicates that in many countries, such as India, the nature of urbanisation is more dispersed and in-situ. Other research, e.g., CPR’s SCI-FI project, indicates that basic urban services are often accessed through non-network arrangements. In future many, possibly a majority, of prospective urban dwellers could be in smaller settlements and accessing services via non-network models. Given this, smaller urban settlements and non-network service models need more research, media, and policy attention. This networking event will attempt to bring smaller settlements to the forefront of contemporary cross-national urbanisation debates, highlighting, inter alia, alternate urban service models. This event will engage with: a) New methodologies to measure urbanisation, allowing more coherent cross-country analysis, based on the e-geopolis project, that uses satellite data to build a common global basis for settlement identification b) Role of smaller towns in the future of urbanisation and their characteristic challenges c) Non-network models of urban service delivery, highlighting urban sanitation, within small towns and metropolitan slums. It will explore the portability of service delivery models from one type of location to another and their ability to scale-up equitable provision in small towns and metropolitan slums To engage with the SDGs post-Quito, the event will launch a global network on small towns, new delivery models and informal settlements to create a collaborative platform to share knowledge, information, and resources, and solutions. The networking event is an ideal platform for researchers, practitioners, government representatives and policymakers interested in future urbanisation and basic service delivery and the role of small cities and informal settlements to explore partnerships and comparative cross-country analysis.