Eco13 london philipp rode lse cities
LSE Cities is a research centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Contents
The purpose of the centre is to increase knowledge and understanding of how people and cities interact in a rapidly urbanising world, focusing on how the physical form and design of cities impacts on society, culture and the environment; and educate and train new generations of researchers and executives through its postgraduate and executive programmes. The 10-year old Urban Age project is the centre's major outreach component. This international investigation of how the physical and social are interconnected in cities has held conferences in 13 cities across four continents, including Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, London, Hong Kong, Istanbul, São Paulo, Mumbai, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Berlin, Shanghai and New York City. Urban Age is jointly organised with Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft.
The centre's main research activities are divided into three research units:
1. Cities, Space and Society 2. Cities and the Environment 3. Urban GovernanceRicky Burdett is the director of LSE Cities. Philipp Rode acts as the executive director.
Education
The centre offers MSc and PhD level education through the LSE Cities Programme. A two-year part time Executive MSc in Cities is also available as of 2016. The centre has offered an Executive Summer School short course since 2014 on "London and Global Cities - Governance, Planning and Design".
Events
LSE Cities regularly organises a range of events, including public lectures, seminars and workshops. In November and December 2015, the centre collaborated with Guardian Cities for the "Urban Age 10 Global Debates", which included five public events on issues such as social equity and designing urban infrastructure, accompanied by articles published in the Guardian. Participants included sociologist Saskia Sassen, writer Suketu Mehta, architects Norman Foster and Alejandro Aravena, as well as the Executive Director of UN Habitat, Joan Clos.
The centre has also co-led the organisation of several events, such as the 2015 Disrupting Mobility Summit in Cambridge, MA, along with MIT Media Lab, U.C. Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) and the Berlin Social Science Centre. It is also co-leading a policy unit on urban governance, capacity and institutional development in preparation for the October 2016 Habitat III conference in Quito, Ecuador.
In 2016, the Urban Age programme presented one of the three Special Projects featured at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition realised by La Biennale di Venezia. Titled Conflicts of an Urban Age, the exhibition examined global urban trends from 1990-2015 and asked how the world can accommodate five billion urban dwellers by 2030.
Research and key publications
A variety of publications have been produced by LSE Cities. The centre's Urban Age project has led to the publication of two books edited by Ricky Burdett and Deyan Sudjic: The Endless City (2008) and Living in the Endless City (2011). These books address the broad themes discussed at Urban Age conferences, produce data on various economic, social and environmental indicators and provide more detailed chapters on specific cities. The centre has also published several reports, such as Going Green: How cities are leading the next economy (2013), the product of a survey of 90 city governments with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and ICLEI – local governments for sustainability. Other reports have addressed issues ranging from transport and mobility, to cities and energy and the prospects for technological innovation in urban environments.
Several academic articles by LSE Cities researchers and directors have also been published. The Ordinary Streets project led by Suzanne Hall has produced a number ethnographic and sociological studies on diversity, migration and urban adaptation. It has also been captured in a short film looking at the inner workings of life and local business on Peckham's Rye Lane. The findings of the Urban Uncertainty Project, coordinated by Sobia Ahmad Kaker and Austin Zeiderman, have similarly been presented in various academic journals. The Urban Governance research unit has also produced the New Urban Governance project, co-funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which features the urban governance survey, developed along with UN Habitat and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), aiming to redress the lack of empirical research on the functioning and capacity of local and city governments worldwide.