Data scientists at Facebook compared users’ hometowns with their current homes to discern the 10 cities with the most “coordinated migrations,” where at least 20% of the population of one city has moved to another city.
Source. The top 10 destinations:
- Lagos, Nigeria
- Istanbul, Turkey
- Bogota, Columbia
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Accra, Ghana
- Hyderabad, India
- Kampala, Uganda
- Lima, Peru
- Chennai, India
- London, Great Britain
People will get excited about the big data, but the insight I drew was that urban politics and economics are woefully understudied in development.
One Response
I wholehearted agree with you Chris in regards to the lack of academic attention devoted to urbanism in development. I completed a Masters in International Urban and Environmental Management at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and it is one of the very few programs with such a focus that I know of. Funnily enough, I found it impossible to get a job in this field as although some aid agencies such as World Vision are beginning to undertake work in urban areas, there is still a very poor understanding of what skill sets and knowledge is required to to work in the urban sphere. I now found myself working on agroforestry in Ethiopia, amongst other things, but hope to one day do some work on urbanism in Africa. I currently live in Addis Ababa and everyday I see facets of urbanism that need greater scrutiny and research if better development outcomes are to be achieved for urban communities.