A vision for the next urban economy: from macro to metro

Public lecture of the LSE Works series hosted by LSE Cities

LSE Cities and the Brookings Institution have carried out new research on how cities and metropolitan areas are responding to current economic challenges. Ricky Burdett discussed how selected European and Asian cities – Torino, Barcelona, Munich and Seoul – have overcome crises in the recent past and shown significant progress in urban economic development over the past two decades.

Bruce Katz outlined a vision of the next American economy, one that is driven by exports, powered by low carbon, fueled by innovation and rich with opportunity and led by major metropolitan areas, which concentrate the nation’s economic assets. This included connecting lessons of economic restructuring from abroad to the challenges facing US metros.

A central finding of the research is that cities will continue to play a critical role in creating and sustaining stable economies that foster social inclusion and environmental equity, but only if metropolitan governance is active and aligned, and cities continue to invest in social capital, job creation and quality of place.

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    Ricky Burdett

    Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics (LSE), and director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age project. He is a member of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board, and was chief advisor on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics and architectural advisor to the Mayor of London from 2001 to 2006. He was director of the International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2006. With Deyan Sudjic he is co-editor of The Endless City (2007) and Living in the Endless City (2011) and, with Philipp Rode Shaping Cities in an Urban Age (2018).

    Bruce Katz

    Bruce J. Katz is a vice president at the Brookings Institution and founding director of the Metropolitan Policy Program. He is also co-author of The Metropolitan Revolution (Brookings Press, 2013), a distillation of his work on the emerging metropolitan-led "next economy" and its practitioners around the country working to produce more and better jobs driven by innovation, exports and sustainability. Katz regularly advises federal, state, regional and municipal leaders on policy reforms that advance the competitiveness of metropolitan areas.

    Alexandra Jones

    Alexandra is Chief Executive of Centre for Cities. She is an influential voice in the cities debate, regularly providing advice for senior policymakers in national and local government as well as Local Enterprise Partnerships and businesses. She is also chair of the London Stansted Cambridge Consortium and the Fast Growth Cities group, a Commissioner on the London Finance Commission and the Cardiff Capital Growth Commission, and is a member of the HEFCE Catalyst Fund panel.