Alain De Botton is a philosopher/writer/all around on point gentleman/ my intellectual hero. His new book (pictured above) is required reading for anyone who is wondering where to chip away some happiness from the modern workplace. Here is Alain on "The City As A Knowledge Centre" -

De Botton sees cities as centres of knowledge. That is why people want to meet each other there. Cities are, as it were, enormous libraries filled not with books but with people. Despite this, large numbers of people are moving out to the suburbs, in part because of the possibilities provided by cars, the internet and other mass media. So does this mean that cities are becoming redundant? De Botton does not think so. “Cities are not for everybody. But internet, the telephone and ordinary mail can’t replace the city, because these channels can only do certain things. Meeting people face-to-face is, and will remain, important.”

“There are conflicts between, for example, commerce and other functions such as art and culture,” he admits. “Because cities are centres for artistic exchanges. But if cities become too successful, they become so expensive that important groups such as artists and students disappear. We have to find a way of curing cities of their excessive success. We are facing the issue of how to make economically prosperous cities cheaper when cities becoming cheaper is generally a sign of decline.”



http://www.monocle.com/sections/culture/Web-Articles/Alain-de-Botton/