Theme of Shanghai World Expo: Better City, Better Life.

Five Sub-themes of Shanghai World Expo

From the beginning, the city was made up of all kinds of people. In the process of urban development, military, trade and immigration further promote the collision and integration of multi-cultures, and also form the unique temperament of each city. On the one hand, this temperament is based on a city's cultural heritage and creative industries, on the other hand, it integrates the lifestyle and value orientation of various social groups and strata in the city.

Today, people all over the world pay more attention to cultural freedom and cultural identity than ever before. Under the background of globalization, urban culture is facing various impacts. The massive flow of information and people makes the collision between strong culture and weak culture, foreign culture and local culture, immigrant culture and mainstream culture in cities reach an unprecedented level.

Multiculturalism means the harmony between history and the future. More and more city managers realize that the cultural strategy of giving consideration to history and future, promoting the harmonious coexistence of multiple cultures, and the personality in integration, that is, distinctive cultural identity, are important components of urban sustainable development.

The prosperity of urban economy

The earliest cities developed from markets. The driving force of urban economic development is the agglomeration effect of cities. In the era of knowledge economy, innovation and entrepreneurship are increasingly becoming the core driving forces for the sustainable development of urban economy. The innovation ability of a city is based on its scientific research strength, but more comes from the creative interaction between people. Although entrepreneurial ability is related to the wealth of a city, it is actually rooted in the cultural tradition of encouraging entrepreneurship. Whether a city has a high-quality working and living environment and the ability to attract first-class talents is directly related to its economic future. In addition, good infrastructure and complete service industry are also necessary conditions for urban economic prosperity.

Needless to say, there is a conflict between urban economic development and environmental resources protection. Establishing circular economy model has become an important strategy to realize the sustainable development of cities. This economic development model advocates the 3R principle of reducing resource utilization, product reduce and waste recycling in production, and finally realizes the harmony between economic development and environment.

In a word, the future urban economy will be more dynamic, and this vitality is based on two major foundations, one is the innovation and creativity of citizens, and the other is the harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

Urban scientific and technological innovation

The city is a huge stage for human scientific and technological innovation. Within the city wall, all kinds of innovative elements converge and blend, and innovative ideas are produced by people's intensive exchanges and interactions. At the same time, the R&D and production facilities in the city quickly transform the spark of innovation into technology, and then become products and services that benefit mankind.

Since the 20th century, the rapid development of science and technology has made large-scale urbanization possible. At the same time, the enrichment and improvement of people's material life are concentrated in cities. Science and technology have greatly improved people's daily life, and this kind of material life has also left a deep imprint on people's cultural and spiritual life.

In the future cities, science and technology will play a great role in protecting non-renewable resources, intensively using energy, protecting species diversity and creating a sustainable living environment.

Remodeling urban communities

Community is the "cell" of a city and the most common form of living space for urban people. Healthy "cells" can create a healthy and harmonious city. Cultural integration and economic prosperity are all realized with the community as the basic unit.

The construction and transformation of urban communities has always been the most direct task faced by urban managers. How to make poor communities disappear from the social map of the city was once the most vivid and lasting puzzle in the history of urban development. Nowadays, the change of urban residents' structure in developed countries and the unprecedented growth of urban population in developing countries make this task even more arduous. In the Millennium Declaration, UN-Habitat put forward the goal of building a "slum-free city" and strived to significantly improve the lives of slum dwellers in the world cities by 2020.

Under the goal of sustainable development, the urban community reconstruction in 2 1 century means that a "balanced community" must be created, which should have the following characteristics: reasonable composition of residents, reasonable housing ownership structure, perfect infrastructure, pleasant living environment, sufficient employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, and deep social cohesion.

Urban-rural interaction

Since the birth of cities, cities and rural areas have been interdependent in economy, society and environment. Rural residents make a living by selling products to cities, and the prosperity of cities also depends on the resources and needs of rural hinterland.

Urban expansion has brought great pressure to non-renewable resources, and the new ideas of urban planning, the application of architecture and energy technology can alleviate this pressure to the greatest extent. At the same time, the influx of a large number of rural population has put forward an arduous task for urban management. On the one hand, the construction and transformation of urban communities will give the urbanized population a good living environment; On the other hand, the construction of small cities and market towns can also effectively reduce the pressure of population and employment in big cities. Under the impact of globalization, agricultural areas in some countries have lost their competitive advantages. Good interaction between urban and rural areas can help farmers successfully change their management and livelihood, or reshape the agricultural production structure and restore the competitiveness of agriculture. How to coordinate the flow of people, capital, logistics and information between urban and rural areas is closely related to the harmonious and synchronous development of urban and rural areas.

At present, nearly half the world's population lives in rural areas. The difference between urban and rural areas in developing countries has prompted relevant international organizations to call for making full use of the complementary role and interconnection between rural areas and cities, and strive to eliminate rural poverty and improve rural living conditions while striving to eliminate urban poverty.