UNU Sustainable Urban Workshop, NYC, 9-10 July 2007. The meeting was organized around key elements of the Programme proposal. Workshop sessions included “Re-conceptualizing the urban challenge,” “Creating responsible societies: governance of urban places,” “Forces driving urban change,” “Quality of life and reducing urban impacts,” “Identifying urban constellations” and “Social development and attractiveness of the urban milieus.” Participants came from around the world and included paper presenters, moderators and observers. We took advantage of those urban experts from other UN agencies, funding organizations and Universities in New York City by inviting them to the workshop. About 16 papers were delivered within the above themes.
The general conclusions of the workshop (which are spelt out more fully in Appendix A) suggest urgency in addressing global future urbanization, at all scales. Specifically, there are documented danger signals from the social, economic and environmental impacts of urbanization as well as the vulnerability of settlements to a growing variety of threats, not least of which is climate variability. Moreover, as traditionally understood, urbanization has changed dramatically. A “New Urbanization” has emerged and is changing settlement patterns rapidly. We must respond, at all levels of governance, immediately.
These challenges however, are not yet being awarded high priority by policymakers. Too often, traditional data and methodologies have inadequately informed policy relevant research and may have been misleading policy. New data and methodologies are available, perhaps not mainstream, but are promising in terms of their ability to identify new perspectives and new points of leverage for planning, policy and practice. At the same time, we cannot afford to spend another decade collecting data. Rather, we need to reform urban research processes and speed up their flow to policymakers.
Our new vision challenges traditional thinking and therefore has policy, planning and practice implications for enhancing livelihood opportunities, ensuring economic resilience, equity, social justice and re-distribution, governance, human well-being, livability and the environment. Moreover, at this moment in history, there are opportunities to engage in visioning exercises about sustainable urban futures in regards to design and land use, transportation, environment and social life. The final results of the workshop strongly suggest a policy relevant research product at this moment in history is necessary and can be provided through continued work with this group.
In terms of the next steps, we suggest the following:
- We attached a framework for a possible publication (Appendix A). It will be difficult, however, to prepare and edit all proposed papers so that the common themes are clearly represented and persuasively argued within 9 months. As the outline is constructed and the papers are currently written, there is a variable fit between them. That is, for some papers, there will be some considerable work to do with the authors
- Once the report and outline for the proposal publication is made acceptable to the editorial group, we should send it to participants for their feedback. We estimate that after finishing and emailing the document, we can expect responses in about 4-6 weeks
- Upon feedback, we can re-write the document as a basis for the final publication
- We recommend a second meeting that focuses on linking research to action. Prior to this second meeting we need to communicate with all current participants and identify new experts (including, inter alia, experts from Africa, as urbanization in this part of the world is of growing local, regional and global importance and experts focusing on aging population, international migration, the spread of HIV/AIDs other important unfolding trends) that will complete the framework as conceived
- The purpose of the second meeting is to: 1) present fully revised papers for constructive assessment by colleagues; and, 2) draw out the grounded policy implications based upon the contextualized implications of general trends with our new re-conceptualizations of urbanization; 3) develop the network of the UNU Programme; and, 4) Develop projects in a manner that attracts funding agencies whose interests are applied research.
- In the meantime, a policy brief can be written that contains the basic messages from this workshop. This policy brief can also be the basis for a UNU-UN Midday Forum organized by the UNU Office in NY sometime in 2008.
Appendix A
Preliminary structure and outline for the first publication
as discussed in the workshop
Title: Sustainable Urban Futures
1. Introduction
This chapter will outline the character of the “New Urbanization” or “New Urban Constellations.” We start with a brief description of the danger signals of an urbanizing world. Then we explain the use “sustainability” as a discourse vehicle to help identify our normative position, vis-à-vis socially just, more environmentally benign and responsible urban centers. In this chapter, we also identify why the UNU is best qualified to be “shepparding the discourse.” We see the advantages of the UNU as being a arm of the UN with a explicit research agenda, the ability to convene academic meeting with people from different perspectives and from different parts of the world and to act as a neutral entity with no vested interests in outcomes. Finally, the introduction will outline the goals of this publication which include putting urbanization into the development agenda and changing the notion of cities as sustainable development problems to sustainable development solutions.
Potential authors for this chapter include Hans van Ginkel, Terry McGee, Michael Douglass, Peter J. Marcotullio and Tatiana Gadda.
Section 2: Urban transitions (or facts of urbanization)
Chapters in this section should describe the state and trends of urbanization around the globe in terms of both the general phenomena and the different trajectories of urbanization by region and nation. It should include pictures and graphs. Importantly, we need to identify the “New Urbanization” which includes changes in the scale, volume, type and speed of the processes.
Chapters may be provided by George Martine and Xizhue Peng. We need, however, to make sure that the idea of urban constellations is included and fully explained. This translates in what McGee has termed “rurban” as a way to understand settlement pattern growth. It obviates the need to consider city size carefully.
Section 3: Drivers of urbanization: Explaining the New Urbanization
This section will include chapters that focus on the drivers of contemporary urbanization. These documents will explain why urbanization has taken on new forms. References to globalization, new local realities, technological change, political shifts, etc. are some of the drivers we heard about during the workshop.
Chapters in this section may be provided by Michael Douglass and Arif Hasan
Section 4: Re-conceptualizing the urban challenge
This section includes chapters that outline the different ways in which “urban” has typically been understood. These papers must contrast these conceptions with current realities, including those related to urban constellations, shifts in time-space dynamics and new social realities.
Potential contributions for this section include those from Hans van Ginkel, Terry McGee, Arif Hasan and Peter J. Marcotullio.
Section 5: New methodologies for the New Urbanization
Chapters in this section will point out the new data and methodologies to analyze urban settlement patterns and activities. Chapters can include differences between studies of the physical and social scientists (land use vs. population), differences in data collection and integration and new sources of information (social, physical, GIS, indicators, etc).
Potential contributions for this section include those from Karen Seto, Gustavo G. Garza, Sumila Gulyani, Deborah Balk and Ademola Braimoh
Section 6: Challenges to current understandings
This section will include chapters that identify the challenges the “New Urbanization” have to our understanding of and responses to a variety of key urban issues including: enhancing livelihood opportunities, ensuring economic resilience, equity, social justice and distribution, governance, human well-being and livability, and the environment.
Potential contributions for this section include those from Michael Douglass and Terry McGee, Arif Hasan, Tatiana Gadda, Paul van Lindert, Ooi Giok-ling, Marco Keiner, and Steve Hammer, and Bill Solecki.
Section 7: Visioning the future of cities
Chapters in this section will include visions/future scenarios for cities. These future scenarios can include new designs and land uses, transportation systems, environmental systems and new aspects of social relations that need attention or perhaps intervention.
Potential contributions for this section include those from Terry McGee and Michael Douglass and Jaime Lerner and Tatiana Gadda.
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