Monthly Archives: May 2016

Conflicts of an Urban Age opens at the Venice Biennale

27 May 2016

Conflicts of an Urban Age, a Special Project of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition realised by La Biennale di Venezia, opens today in Venice. Curated by LSE Cities, it is part of the Urban Age programme jointly organised by the London School of Economics and Political Science and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft. It explores patterns of urban growth between 1990 and 2015 and asks how we can apply the lessons of these twenty-five years to the future of cities. In the context of Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development that will be held in Quito, Ecuador on 17-20 October 2016, the exhibition documents the transformation of fishing villages into megacities and examines how 5 billion urban dwellers can be accommodated by 2030. It runs from May 28th – November 27th 2016.

‘How Cities are Governed’ website re-launch

19 May 2016

The 2016 edition of the Urban Governance Survey undertaken by LSE Cities in partnership with UN Habitat and UCLG (Decentralisation and Local Governance Committee), and supported by the MacArthur Foundation, has been launched today. The renovated website displays data from 104 cities spanning five continents, with new survey questions, and is now available in English, Spanish and French. A key element of LSE Cities’ New Urban Governance project, the new online platform presents both the results of the survey and contains more in-depth analysis of existing institutional arrangements and governance challenges faced by cities around the world. It seeks to both address the data challenges confronting research on urban governance, while providing an accessible and detailed resource for the wider public. Local government officials that wish to participate in this edition of the Urban Governance Survey can do so until 30 June 2016.

New Climate Economy launches the Coalition for Urban Transitions

10 May 2016

The New Climate Economy project, led by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, has launched a new international initiative to work towards the sustainable economic and social transition of cities. LSE Cities, which has played a key role in the NCE project, will be part of a Steering Group designed to support the Coalition for Urban Transitions with strategic advice, technical expertise, and academic research. The Coalition, to be hosted by the World Resources Institute (WRI) Ross Center for Sustainable Cities and jointly managed by the C40 Climate Leadership Group, aims to “help achieve the Paris climate goals by making cities a focus of national economic planning, improving city access to financing for low-carbon infrastructure and making the economic case for climate friendly urban growth, particularly in developing countries.”