Philipp Rode, Executive Director of LSE Cities and Urban Age, will deliver a keynote at the Urban Future global conference in Vienna on ‘Mapping Urban Governance’ as part of a workshop aimed at official city representatives on the Mayor’s Challenge on 28 February 2018. Savvas Verdis, Deputy Director of the LSE Executive MSc in Cities , will also participate in the educational workshop. LSE Cities will also be hosting an exhibition stand providing more information on the executive education.

Ricky Burdett, Director of LSE Cities and Urban Age, will deliver a lecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago on 28 February 2018. The MCHAP lecture, entitled ‘Shaping Cities‘ will explore how different types of urban systems can act as straightjackets or provide more open and resilient frameworks to respond to known and unknown social and environmental challenges. Burdett is also the Jury Chair of the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP).

LSE’s work on cities has been awarded the prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday, 22 February 2018. The Prize was personally presented to Dame Minouche Shafik, Director of LSE, and Professor Ricky Burdett CBE, Director of LSE Cities and Urban Age, by Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Commenting on the award, Professor Burdett, said: “We are delighted that our work on cities has been recognised with such a distinguished prize at a time when the design, planning and governance of our urban futures is at such a critical stage.” A version of the submission document is on our website.

On 15 February 2018, The Guardian published “The story of Mr Sudhir: how to survive in Delhi’s ‘grey market‘”, an edited extract from Richard Sennett’s newest book, Building and Dwelling. The article details Sennett’s experience of Nehru Place in Delhi, where he interviews a man who sold him a dud iPhone. LSE Cities will host a book launch on 20 March.

LSE Cities’ provided advisory support for a new C40 report. “Urban Climate Action Impacts Framework” offers cities tools to better know when climate policies will also deliver cleaner air, healthier streets or faster growth. LSE Cities has previously contributed to climate frameworks for cities under the Economics of Green Cities Programme where it co-authored a working paper on “Co-benefits of urban climate action:  A framework for cities” with C40.

LSE Cities, in partnership with UCLG and UN-Habitat, will lead a networking event at the World Urban Forum (WUF) in Kuala Lumpur on 10 February 2018. “Towards a New Urban Governance Observatory” aims to identify the key aspects that need to be taken into account when creating an indicator facility for monitoring changes in urban and metropolitan governance over the next 10-20 years. This builds on the experience gathered in coordinating one of ten Habitat III Policy Units on Urban Governance, Capacity and Institutional Development during the preparations of the New Urban Agenda, the global Urban Governance Survey covering 127 cities, and the on-going New Urban Governance research project. Philipp Rode, Executive Director of LSE Cities, will draw on this research in his presentation.

Philipp Rode, Executive Director at LSE Cities and Urban Age, has authored Governing Compact Cities: How to Connect Planning, Design and Transport. The Edward Elgar publication investigates how governments and other critical actors organise to enable compact urban growth, combining higher urban densities, mixed use and urban design quality with more walkable and public transport-oriented urban development. Philipp Rode draws on empirical evidence from London and Berlin to examine how urban policymakers, professionals and stakeholders have worked across disciplinary silos, geographic scales and different time horizons since the early 1990s. A recent LSE Cities report directed by Rode – Towards New Urban Mobility: The case of London and Berlin – also looks at how these two cities can better leverage new and emerging mobility choices in cities.

Marco Di Nunzio, Urban Age Rsearch Officer at LSE Cities, delivered “Development through dislocation: scale, aesthetics and the politics of informality in Addis Ababa’s construction boom” at the African Centre for Cities International Urban Conference in Cape Town on 2 February 2018. The special panel looking at Informality, urban space and infrastructure was convened by LSE Cities and chaired by Victoria Okoye. Panellists included Gunvor Jónsson (Urban informality and ‘evictability’: the demolition of the Malian market in Dakar); and Taibat Lawanson (Slum upgrading in Lagos: a retrospective assessment of World Bank projects).

Rebecca Craig, Urban Age researcher at LSE Cities, delivered “Urban transport, new data and governance: implications of mapping the informal” at the African Centre for Cities International Urban Conference in Cape Town on 2 February 2018. The special panel looking at How digitalisation will shape public transport in African cities was convened by LSE Cities and chaired by Philipp Rode. Panellists included Jacqueline Klopp (Mapping minibuses in Maputo and Nairobi); Herrie Schalekamp (Technology and formalisation in the minibus-dominated public transport sector in South Africa) and Stéphane Eboko (Engaging a shift toward sustainable mobility to leverage the potential of alternative models on the continent).