On Friday 18 September, the global parliament of mayors convened in Amsterdam. A useful response to urban problems – or a half-formed idea coughed up by smooth talkers with books to sell?

Read Adam Greenfield’s full article: ‘A global parliament of mayors? Just what cities need – more bureaucracy’.

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ 2014 Mayors Challenge has selected its five winning cities.

The Mayors Challenge is an ideas competition that encourages cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life and that have the potential to spread to other cities.

The grand prize of €5m was won by Barcelona. The city aims to create a digital and community ‘Trust Network’ for each of its at-risk elderly residents.

Four other cities have also been awarded funds for innovative solutions to pressing urban challenges – Athens, Greece; Kirklees in Yorkshire, UK; Stockholm, Sweden; and Warsaw, Poland.

LSE Cities’ Director Ricky Burdett was a jury member on the competition, and LSE Cities carried out evaluations of the submissions.

You can read the full announcement on the Bloomberg website. 

LSE Cities and the LSE Department of Government are pleased to announce that the London School of Economics and Political Science has appointed Dame Tessa Jowell as a Professor of Practice on a part-time basis. Professor Jowell will be working with both LSE Cities and the Department of Government in a range of academic and outreach initiatives.

Tessa Jowell will stand down from UK Parliament at the next election in May 2015 after having served as an MP for the London constituency of Dulwich and West Norwood since 1992. Throughout her career in public service, Jowell has developed extensive experience of regeneration, urban policy and building the human capital of residents in inner city and deprived areas. She was Secretary of State for the Culture, Media and Sports for the UK Government from 2001 to 2007, and Minister for the Olympics responsible for guiding the successful 2012 Olympic Games in London and setting up the dynamics for a long-term legacy in East London. She was Minister for Women in 2006-2007 and has been awarded a Menschel Senior Fellowship in advanced leadership at Harvard University School of Public Health.

At LSE she will contribute to teaching and research activities across departments, take part in the Urban Age conference on ‘Governing Urban Futures’ in Delhi in November 2014 and will coordinate a public seminar series on key issues facing Londoners from January 2015.

On Monday 8 December 2014, Tessa Jowell will deliver an inaugural public lecture in LSE’s Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Building Capacity in Urban Communities, chaired by Professor Craig Calhoun, Director of LSE.

LSE Cities’ Urban Uncertainty research team organised a session titled Uncertainty at the Royal Geographical Society Conference on Thursday 28th August.

Sobia Ahmad Kaker participated as a discussant for Andrew Barry’s keynote lecture titled ‘The Politics of Contingency: Crisis, Event and Situation’ on Thursday 28 August.

Austin Zeiderman chaired the session Geographies of No-Man’s Lands (2) at the conference on Wednesday 27 August.

Jon Silver chaired Pluralizing Approaches to Urban Political Ecology in a ‘World of Cities’ (1), and spoke at Pluralizing Approaches to Urban Political Ecology in a ‘World of Cities’ (2) on Friday 29 August.