Institute For The Future

Squatters and Innovation

As we start framing out the forthcoming Technology Horizons memo on "Cannibalism and Co-operation in the New Infrastructure", we've decided to frame the piece around the boomtowns that are third world cities. We're looking at them as new cauldrons of innovation, but also as the places where lightweight infrastructure will have the greatest economic and social impacts.

 

At the recommendation of Howard Rheingold, I've been reading Robert Neuwirth's new book on squatter communities around the world: Shadow Cities. (Robert also has a blog about the book and squatter communities.) The most interesting thing about the book is how it describes the way squatters have systematically constructed communities over the last few decades using the lightest of materials, organizational and financial structures. They have employed multi-faceted and sophisticated co-operation schemes to support this growth, and they have aggressively cannibalized existing infrastructure systems to do so. While these communities have existed at the margins, their sheer numbers are bringing them to the forefront of global debates about the future of cities (The UN is meeting in Vancouver right now to talk about global urbanization at the 3rd World Urban Forum.) - we think that they have been ignored for too long as places where people are being remarkably innovative in finding new ways to squeeze value out of very little using only the most basic of tools.

 

We're outlining the memo over the next few weeks and will have more thoughts by the end of July.