The first European Mayors’ Conference was held at the London School of Economics in February 2003. Sixteen mayors from cities across Europe spent two days together, comparing notes and exchanging experiences with urban experts on how their own cities are changing. Each mayor gave a 15-minute visual presentation on major urban design and infrastructure projects in their own cities, raising questions and issues for discussion with their colleagues. The objective of the conference was to enable civic leaders, academics and experts to freely exchange views on the underlying trends that connect and intersect beneath the emerging ‘Europe of Cities’. Reflecting the academic and policy interests of the LSE Cities Programme, the focus of this first meeting was on the interactions between urban design and urban society.
This Compendium offers a summary of the conference. It contains a CD with the visual presentations given by all mayors. It includes comparative economic, social and physical data on each city as well as comments by four of the panel of urban experts, providing a personal perspective on some of the key social, spatial and political issues that cut across geographical and national boundaries.