Virginia Postrel recently posted on growing countertrends against extreme urbanization in China and Brazil.
Most projections of what the near future will look like assume the inexorable growth of Third World cities. But it’s starting to look like they’ll hit their limits–just as cities like Chicago (once the quintessential developing-nation urban center) did. As the cost of living and doing business in urban centers rises, production and people move to cheaper places. It happened here, to the striking benefit of the once-rural Sunbelt, and a couple of recent articles suggest it’s happening in China and Brazil.
Far Outliers 