The Age of Discontinuity
The reason why the urban revolution is so acute, quick and sudden, is because it is driven by a compelling force: the spectacular increase in the world population. By the mid-twenty-firstt century, the number of human beings will have tripled. We are currently facing the formidable challenge of having to house all these people to come. This brutal shift also entails new ways of experiencing time on our human scale. The sociologist Jean Viard describes the link between accelerated global urbanization and the demographic revolution that people are experiencing now that humans have begun to live complete and discontinuous lives, before delving into the issue of time as well as the importance of collaborative approaches in improving our quality of life. Jean Viard is a sociologist and economist. Associate director of research at the CNRS and Cevipof, he is also the director of the Éditions de l’Aube publishing company.
