28 November 2012
LSE Cities’ Research Fellow Austin Zeiderman presented a paper at King’s College London’s November 29-30 conference on “Mobile Urbanisms”.
The paper, “Millennial City: The Bogotá Model And The Futures Of Urbanism”, used the case of Bogotá as a heuristic to shed light on emergent rationalities and techniques of urban governance on a global scale.
For more information on the conference, click here.
22 November 2012
Focusing on the inquiry into the spatial and social dynamics of cities, we are now into our third year of research, outreach and educational activities at LSE Cities. The latest report on our activities from January 2011 to June 2012 can now be downloaded: Click here to download the report.
19 November 2012
We are delighted to announce that Richard Sennett rejoins the LSE as an active faculty member within LSE Cities. He is once again Professor of Sociology, and now also Honorary Fellow of the School. He serves as chair of the Advisory Board and a member of the Governing Board of LSE Cities. His own research at LSE Cities focuses on urban culture and urban design.
LSE Cities’ Academic Director Fran Tonkiss and Advisory Board member Saskia Sassen have both been named as two of the top ten living female spatial theorists by Architektin magazine, with Sassen taking the top spot.
16 November 2012
LSE Cities’ Research Fellow Austin Zeiderman presented a paper on November 16 entitled “Risk in Retrospect: Prognosis Politics and Disaster Preparedness” at the recent Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in San Francisco.
The paper discussed two recent conflicts over the ability of state science to know and govern the future: the 2009 earthquake that hit the Italian city of L’Aquila and a major flood event in 2010 in Bogotá.
“Hall’s project is to de-centre wider debates about multiculturalism while simultaneously re-centring Walworth Road – and by implication other urban margins – as important sites of enquiry. In so doing she draws on the heritage of cultural studies – Raymond Williams – in privileging the ordinary,” writes Ben Campkin, Director of UCL’s Urban Laboratory Director, in this latest review of Suzi Hall’s book City, Street and Citizen: The measure of the ordinary for the LSE Review of Books. He summarises: “Hall’s book embodies a creative intersection between architecture and ethnography at its heart.” Read the full review.
15 November 2012
The Economy of Green Cities: A World Compendium on the Green Urban Economy has recently been published by Springer.
This new book brings together experts from research, the private sector, international organizations and local governments to stimulate new thinking, and offers insight into what a Green Urban Economy could mean for greener cities and sustainable urban development.
It features “Cities and the Green Economy”, a chapter by LSE Cities’ Executive Director Philipp Rode, among contributions from many other leading urbanists.
For more information, or to order your copy, visit the Springer website.
12 November 2012
LSE Cities Director Professor Ricky Burdett features in an episode on megacities produced for BBC World’s Horizons programme and aired on Saturday 10 November. In this episode, moderator Adam Shaw explores the rise of cities with a population of more than 10m and the challenges faced by urban planners around the world. The programme visits London’s new Olympic Park, the nearly congestion-free city of Navi Mumbai, India and the transformation of the Nova Luz neighbourhood in Sao Paulo. Watch the episode here.
3 November 2012
On Saturday 3 November, Theatrum Mundi/Global Street hosted a day of public debate in Venice, as part of the Venice Biennale.
Over three sessions, “Venice Commons”, “Designing for Politics” and “Rethinking the Cultural Centre”, participants discussed spaces in the city for cultural and political activity, asking: What could a Venice ‘commons’ look like? What does it mean to design for politics? And with ever more pressure placed on the social and physical value of the ‘cultural centre’, what are the future forms of spaces for visual or performing art?
Participants included Liza Fior (Principal, muf architecture/art), Michelle Provoost (Principal, Crimson Architectural Historians), Andrew Todd (Principal, Studio Andrew Todd), Ricky Burdett (Director, LSE Cities), Siobhan Davies (Siobhan Davies Dance), and David Chipperfield (Principal, David Chipperfield Architects; Director of the 13th International Architecture Exhibition. Common Ground of the Venice Biennale)
You can read the full programme here, or visit the Theatrum Mundi website.
2 November 2012
On 2 November, the Department for Transport announced that Professor Ricky Burdett of the London School of Economics will sit on the new Airports Commission. The Commission, first announced in September 2012, is chaired by Sir Howard Davies. It has been tasked with identifying and recommending to Government options for maintaining this country’s status as an international hub for aviation.
The Commission will examine the scale and timing of any requirement for additional capacity to maintain the UK’s position as Europe’s most important aviation hub; and it will identify and evaluate how any need for additional capacity should be met in the short, medium and long term.
The Commission’s interim report will be published in 2013, with a final report to follow in 2015.
For more information, visit the Department for Transport website.