The challenges of the twenty-first century city

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Cities are becoming larger, more diverse, more fluid, and less manageable than in the past. Beyond the obvious issues of infrastructure management, transportation, telecommunications, poverty, health care, migration, and education, custodians of the urban future face unprecedented challenges both from the sheer number of human beings in global urban centers and their complex needs. Furthermore, this new reality is set against a backdrop of expanding international terrorism, a neo-liberal consensus that has counseled against governments accepting responsibility for alleviating social problems, and technological changes that are restructuring everyday life.

This talk will address a variety of pertinent policy-making considerations that confront the fluidity and complexity of urban life, from ideas of the “right to the city” and humane civitas to the interrelated pragmatism found in arguments regarding sprawl and urban social sustainability.