LSE Cities Executive Summer School short course: London and Global Cities

Executive course hosted by London School of Economics

LSE Cities is pleased to announce that this Summer, we will be running a course in LSE’s Executive Summer School for the first time.

London and Global Cities: Governance, Planning and Design will take place from 30 June to 4 July 2014 at LSE’s central London campus.

The five day course is an intensive exploration and analysis of how London is governed and managed, drawing parallels with other major cities. Led by Professor Ricky Burdett, Professor Tony Travers and Philipp Rode, the course draws on LSE Cities and LSE London’s research work. Key themes will include governance, planning and design, infrastructure, transport, housing and economic competitiveness.

The programme will include classes given by the core teaching group; guest lectures by key members of London’s political, development, transport and housing sectors; and, visits to some of the city’s most dynamic developments.

Fifteen years after London adopted a directly elected Mayor, the course will unravel how the city is governed, and how the Mayor works through complex layers of local and central government. It will explore how major infrastructure projects like CrossRail, the Congestion Charge and the “Boris bike” system have been funded and implemented. It will describe the loose planning regime of a city enshrined in the London Plan which has led to the rediscovery of the urban skyscraper and promoted a new generation of large-scale, private sector driven developments like Canary Wharf and King’s Cross, as well as the public-sector driven transformation of East London accelerated by the London 2012 Olympics. It will also explain the tensions and challenges posed by an acute housing shortage and increasing inequality amongst its diverse and multi-cultural communities.

The course is designed to appeal to a wide range of early-to-mid career professionals in the public and private sector engaged in managing urban change. These will include urban policy makers and advisers in emerging and established markets, urban analysts in management, planning and urban design consultancies as well as specialists in strategy, investment.  It will be of relevance to anyone  who wishes to benefit from a privileged insight into the dynamics of a world city that, in some respects, provides a successful model for other global centres.

The course will include assignments and a voluntary examination, and participants will receive a certificate from the LSE.

The intensive programme will cover a wide range of issues facing London and global cities, including:

Governance: From regional and neighbourhood government arrangements to fiscal autonomy, public-private coalitions and the challenge of reform.
Planning & design: Including the London Plan; design quality and making the city liveable; density vs sprawl, heritage vs modernity, skyline vs streetscape, and metropolitan vs neighbourhood needs.
Infrastructure: How London assesses the infrastructure it needs; planning for London’s rapid population growth; access to private finance; intelligent decision-making and climate change.
Transport: Fitting London’s transport policy into the city’s wider planning framework; assessing the appropriate role for private and public transport; planning ahead of population growth; buses and taxis, cycling and walking, and the use of fees and charges to provide incentives.
Housing: Looking at how to balance London’s business and housing needs; sustaining mixed communities in the inner and central areas; subsidising homes for the poor; attracting and managing foreign buyers; matching housing to population growth and transport; regeneration of former industrial land and buildings; and the economic development of London’s outer boroughs.
Economic competitiveness: Incorporating City incentives to encourage new sectors; the evolution of ‘Tech City’ in Shoreditch; The ‘Olympics Effect’ on east London; skills shortages and migration impacts; staging major sporting and cultural events, and London’s record in dealing with terrorism or environmental disasters.

Dates: 30 Jun – 4 Jul 14, LSE’s central London campus
Fee: £3,350 (Five day intensive programme)

“Amongst mature cities of the global North, London provides a model of resilience in governance, planning, design and infrastructure. It faces many of the challenges that come with global city status – housing, inequality, cost-of-living – but has implemented important changes since its adoption of a directly elected Mayor in 2000. This week-long course will offer an intense insight into the workings of London, with the participation of some of its leading protagonists and respected scholars. Anyone interested in managing the complexity of urban change will find the short programme useful and informative”. – Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies, LSE

“In any city, urban development is inseparable from the evolution of urban transport and mobility. In London, transport policy has persistently played an exceptional role. A combination of the political powers assigned to London-wide governments, the severe shortcomings of the city’s transport system in the recent past and the overwhelming dependence of London’s economy on an efficient transport network has put transport at the very heart of the politics of London. This course will offer a comprehensive overview on the development of a 21st century transport strategy for London and how it was integrated the city’s spatial development agenda.” – Philipp Rode, Executive Director, LSE Cities

Profiles

    Ricky Burdett

    Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics (LSE), and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age project. He is a member of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board, and was chief advisor on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics and architectural advisor to the Mayor of London from 2001 to 2006. He was director of the International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2006. With Deyan Sudjic he is co-editor of The Endless City (2007) and Living in the Endless City (2011) and, with Philipp Rode Shaping Cities in an Urban Age (2018).

    Philipp Rode

    Philipp Rode is Executive Director of LSE Cities and Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. As researcher, consultant and advisor he has been directing interdisciplinary projects comprising urban governance, transport, city planning and urban design at the LSE since 2003. The focus of his current work is on institutional structures and governance capacities of cities, and on sustainable urban development, transport and mobility. Rode is co-directing the cities workstream of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate and has co-led the United Nations Habitat III Policy Unit on Urban Governance. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).

    Tony Travers

    Tony Travers is Director of the IPA and also of LSE London.  He is a professor in the Department of Government. His key research interests include local and regional government and public service reform. He has been an advisor to the Communities & Local Government Select Committee and also to other Parliamentary committees. He has published a number of books on cities and government, including Failure in British Government, The Politics of the Poll Tax (with David Butler and Andrew Adonis); Paying for Health, Education and Housing: How does the Centre Pull the Purse Strings (with Howard Glennerster and John Hills); The Politics of London: Governing the Ungovernable City and, most recently, London’s Boroughs at 50. He has chaired a number of official commissions, including the Independent Commission on Local Government Finance in Wales and the London Finance Commission.