19.20.21. is an interesting looking project about supercities. Nineteen of them that will have a population of twenty million in the twenty first century. Hence the title. Hammers home the idea that cities, not countries, are how we define the world now. This is what I mean when I say the West Midlands should be rebranded as Greater Birmingham, which in turn should see itself in terms of London. Regional identity is one thing (and something that should be encouraged) but these are the new channels of stuff (money, ideas, power, whatever). via Kottke
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In June 2000 I started blogging at peteashton.com and 10 years later in June 2010 I decided to stop. Blogging here, that is. I started a clean slate over on I Am Pete Ashton and maintain all manner of other web presences which are all listed here along with my contact details.
You probably came here via a Google search or from following a link on some old blog post somewhere. I hope what you find is useful in some way, though do check the publication date - it might be rather old now.
Thanks for your eyeballs.
Pete Ashton
But cities have hinterlands whose histories and identities are just as important. AS David Haden has suggested, we would be better referring to the region as Mercia, since that more clearly relates all ammner of regional identities, from the Romans to Shakespeare. If it’s brand recognition people want, the city should be renamed Greater Stratford-Upon-Avon, or Greater Coventry. Brum, for all its accomplishments, hasn’t got a greater grip on the world’s imagination than either of those places.