Providing a succinct overview of historical, present and future perspectives of cities and urbanism, this discerning book examines how the 21st century, regarded as the age of cities, is associated with the current crisis of democracy.

Contents: Introduction x PART I PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES 1 The crisis of democracy in the age of cities and complexity 2 Juval Portugali 2 The ancient Greek lottery and modern democracies 24 Irad Malkin 3 The end of empire and the age of cities 31 Michael Batty PART II COMPLEXITY THEORY, CITIES AND DEMOCRACY 4 Learning from small urban nations – the importance of randomness and feedback for democratic stability 51 Karoline Wiesner 5 Perfection, does it lean toward balance or perversion? How democracy and the urban grid inform about the human condition 68 Gert De Roo 6 A synergetic cities view on the crisis of democracy in the age of cities 108 Juval Portugali and Hermann Haken 7 Democracy demands wisdom 136 J.A. Scott Kelso PART III THE INTERNET, SMART CITIES AND DEMOCRACY 8 Why the internet must become more like a city 148 Luís M. A. Bettencourt 9 Privacy and trust in artificially intelligent cities 167 Charlie Catlett, Juval Portugali and Venkat Venkatakrishnan PARTIV URBAN GOVERNANCE AND PLANNING 10 Cities under pressure – urban democracy and everyday life 185 Sabine Knierbein 11 Governing cities democratically through partnerships 204 Ashwin Mahalingam and Juval Portugali 12 A crisis of lost values: rediscovering the relationship between urban beauty, democracy and complexity 220 Stefano Cozzolino 13 Democracy beyond the state in the age of cities: explaining crisis dynamics in national democracy 246 Hans Agné Index 267