The 21st century city is the new state, the real frontier of change. Here’s why

Cities – some, at any rate – are the real frontier of change and growth. We have it on good authority from Parag Khanna, best-selling author, globalization analyst, senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and self-described “ideas entrepreneur”.

He should know. As OZY’s Carlos Watson put it, “Mr Khanna, has lived in some of the most global cities on earth, from Dubai to London to Singapore”. Having seen the action in three cosmopolitan capitals, Mr Khanna is well-judged to comment on the change underway therein. He says that ethnic communities are “competing for a pie that is not growing as fast as it used to grow … (but) on the city level, not national level.”

There are cities, he says , “that are so diverse and you really can’t say that they belong to one place … New York is one; London is another obvious one …Dubai and Singapore and Toronto…”

It’s an interesting idea. That a city doesn’t strictly belong to one place.

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life”
– Jack Kerouac