The city 

is in many ways, like the corporation, which  it resembles, a core technology of collaboration. They have usually been in some conflict with the regional (national later) leadership with its rural base. The city was a place of crossroads and hence of commerce and capital. The tilt of the world's population into cities that are not civilizational, but extended slums, does not portend well. The idea that slum dwellers would do better (deSoto) if they had title is belied by those with experience: that the poorest would sell land, and hence be alienated from it, not benefit by tenured ownership.

The current relationship between city, culture, civilization, poverty, and economy - and crime, governance and ownership - is in play.

Recent books are helpful. There are many classics such as

Jane Jacobs and Lewis Mumford

newer

Davis, Mike:  Planet of slums

Brand, Stewart: cities and time  forthcoming

Garreau, Joel , Edge Cities (older but creative)

Cities seem to have begun as places to bury, and contain, the dead.