Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has awarded the Centennial Medal to Professor Richard Sennett, Professor of Sociology at LSE and member of LSE Cities Governing Board. The Centennial Medal, the School’s highest honour, is awarded to individuals whose contributions to knowledge, to their disciplines, to their colleagues, and to society have made a fundamental and lasting impact. His citation notes: “Richard is extraordinarily attuned to aesthetics and art, as well as deeply engaged with social inequality and the changing world of global labor relations. Many of his peers would be proud to have worked in just one of the many areas Richard has taken on.”

In a new Global Urban Lecture for UN Habitat, LSE Cities’ Executive Director Philipp Rode presents the findings of the cities research programme of the New Climate Economy (NCE) project, which LSE Cities is co-leading. NCE is the flagship project of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, and the Global Urban Lectures are produced by UNI – UN-Habitat’s partnership with universities worldwide to share academic research more widely. The overall aim of NCE is to provide independent and authoritative evidence on the relationship between actions which can strengthen economic performance and those which reduce the risk of dangerous climate change.

LSE Cities Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Executive MSc in Cities, Savvas Verdis, has received recognition for innovative teaching at the LSESU Teaching Excellence Awards. Savvas was among the highly commended nominees chosen by students on Wednesday evening.

The New Urban Governance project has added a new short essay to its series on urban complexity and the institutional capacities of cities. The sixth essay in the series, “Urban Governance Innovations in Rio de Janeiro”, was written by LSE Cities researcher Harry Blain, and summarises a forthcoming full-length journal article by Bruno Paschoal and Kai Wegrich on the political management of digital innovations in the city. Paschoal and Wegrich’s article is part of a Journal of Urban Affairs special issue edited by Nuno F. da Cruz, Philipp Rode and Michael McQuarrie.

LSE Cities and Urban Age Director Ricky Burdett will serve on a panel of judges searching for a concept architect to design a new concert hall in the City of London. The City of London Corporation, after issuing a tender notice this week, is planning to develop a new concert hall on the Museum of London site next to the Barbican.

Yesterday evening marked the official opening of Theatrum Mundi‘s new Designing Politics exhibition at the LSE Atrium Gallery in London. Learning from three ideas challenges in New York, London and Rio de Janeiro, Designing Politics will begin a conversation about the relationship between design, performance, politics and the city. The exhibition, a collaboration with LSE Arts, is open until June 9, and has been led by Adam Kaasa, coordinated by Elizabetta Pietrostefani and designed by Mike Lim, Roddy Bow and James Pockson.

Edgar Pieterse, Director of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town and member of the Advisory board of LSE Cities, has published a new article in the Journal of Urban Affairs. The article is part of a special issue on ‘New Urban Governance’, edited by Nuno F. da Cruz, Philipp Rode and Michael McQuarrie.

With the title ‘Urban governance and spatial transformation ambitions in Johannesburg’, this contribution explores the history of democratic decentralization reforms in South Africa and the case of Johannesburg’s metropolitan government in particular. It also analyses the significance of the city’s flagship ‘Corridors of Freedom’ initiative in this context.

It is the fourth article to be made available online in a series that will be published in print as a special issue of the JUA. Other articles already available ahead of print address urban governance in China, India and for the case-study cities of London and Berlin.

LSE Cities Executive Director Philipp Rode presented a keynote address yesterday at Ethiopia’s 7th National Cities Forum in Gondar City. The speech addressed the forum’s key theme – “Sustainable Urban Development and Good Governance for Ethiopia’s Renaissance” – in the wider context of his research on urban governance globally.

Cities Programme Director Suzanne Hall has featured in the latest Royal Geographical Society (RGS) “Ask the Experts” podcast. The podcast, titled Diverse Places and Ordinary High Streets with Dr. Suzanne Hall, is now available and freely downloadable on iTunes.