Getting Past Megacities: How Peri-Urban Has Become the New City Center

Half of the world's seven billion people currently live in cities, one billion of them in informal settlements; the United Nations projects that the global urban population will expand to as many as five billion over the next two decades. As a result of failing rural economies, conflicts, material inequalities, gentrification, and other urban development programs, people are moving into, out of, and through cities in search of profit, protection, and passage elsewhere. (ref: 20120515CUSP)