Expert seminar hosted by LSE Cities
11 June 2014
2pm – 4pm, Thai Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE
In an age of increasing connectivity and globalisation, global politics interplay with urban politics to produce manifold uncertainties. Cities become sites where local and international investors, governments, business corporations, non-government organisations and civil society interact to ameliorate uncertainties relating problems of economic shocks, rapid migration, infrastructural collapse, and environmental destruction. At the same time, ill-conceived economic policies and development initiatives continue to undermine state power and increase political uncertainties and civic conflict.
In this LSE Cities seminar Dr Aisa Kirabo Kacyira, Deputy Executive Director of UN-Habitat and former mayor of Kigali shares reflections on a new global program on cities in fragile and conflict-affected states. Drawing on her experiences in Kigali and the growing UN-Habitat program Dr Kirabo Kacyira will provide an overview of mechanisms for developing political momentum across cities and in generating detailed understandings of conflicts and post-conflict situations that place urban authorities at the centre of navigating fragility and conflict in an uncertain world. The event will feature a response from LSE’s Professor James Putzel, LSE Cities Research Fellow Austin Zeiderman and is chaired by LSE Cities’ Executive Director Philipp Rode.
By showing how urban local governments can play a central role in driving forward peace-building and state-building in such complex situations the seminar will seek to address a number of questions about the role of cities in conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction that offer important reflections for policymakers, practitioners and scholars.
For full details, visit the LSE Cities website.
Picture credit: Flickr, (c) US Army Africa
