As a follow-up to the Urban Age South America conference, Cities and Social Equity assesses the impact of inequality in an urban context with comparative research and data collection in five cities: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Lima. With a combined population of nearly 60 million and dramatic growth in recent decades, these five cities are places of mix, change and extreme polarisation which can be destabilising, inhumane and wasteful of resources.

While the research work commissioned in the report has a specific focus on the problems facing São Paulo, the region’s pre-eminent city, their findings have wider resonance for cities throughout the world. It includes innovative mapping techniques of inequality to identify the pockets of privilege and deprivation in each city. Articles from the summary report are listed below.