Colloquium

Cities have variously been understood as the cultivators of civilization and the generators of prosperity, as well as the source of corruption and immorality. In fiction and films, they capture our imagination, running the gamut from cultural wastelands to future utopias.

EPIIC, this year, will be an international and interdisciplinary investigation into the future of cities, utilizing a global network of policy makers, academic experts, architects, engineers and urban practitioners; as well as working with city mayors and internationally renowned specialists with practical and theoretical expertise in fields ranging from governance and urban crime to housing, city design, and transport.

The rise and fall of great cities has been part of civilization's history, from Athens to Ur, from Alexandria to Nineveh, from Rome to Tenochtitlan. What can be learned from their legacies? Cities of the future are being created in the United Arab Emirates and Brazil, what can be learned from their promise?

The 21st century is the urban century. In 1800 only three percent of the world's population lived in cities. The year 2007 marked the first time in human history that the majority of the global population lived in cities. This rural to urban migration, along with its implications and consequences, from the future of agriculture to the sustainability of water and energy supplies, will be a focus of this course. In conjunction with this migration is the overall explosion of the world's population. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million. In 2008, there are 468. China's urban explosion, the largest in history, has given rise to 102 cities with more than a million residents.

How will cities and countries contend with this acceleration? What insights can be developed into spatial and social developments in cities confronting economic and demographic growth? What will be the global socio-economic, political and security challenges of such rapid urbanization? What are the tensions brought about by the globalization of modern cities with both its global connectedness and local disconnectedness?

In 1995 there were 14 megacities; in 2015 there will be 21. In 2000, there were already 18 hyper cities, such as New York City, Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, and Karachi. The Greater Tokyo Area has a population of 35 million, which is greater than the entire population of Canada, but condensed into 5200 square miles, as compared to Canada's 3.8 million square miles. What specific challenges do these intensely populated areas pose for governance, infrastructure, economic prosperity, and sustainability?

We will consider cities as centers of great culture and great architecture; as command centers for the global economy; as energized flow centers of commodities, information and people; and also as lures for internal and external migration, with the attendant dilemmas of congestion, environmental degradation, poverty, disease, homelessness, and crime.

How has globalization shaped today's cities and what impact will it have in the future? In all of this growth, who is being left behind? From the promise of Las Vegas and Dubai to the slums of Mumbai and Santiago, the course will explore and seek to understand cities as dramatic centers for both extreme affluence and chronic poverty. The urban agenda is a critical global issue. What strategies might lead to the development of prosperous, innovative multi-cultural sustainable cities that would enhance the quality of life for all citizens?

Colloquium Lecturers and Advisers include:

• Barry Bluestone Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy, Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Policy, and Dean of the School of Social Science, Urban Affairs, and Public Policy, Northeastern University
• Abebe Dinku Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
• Michael Dukakis Three-term Governor of Massachusetts; 1988 Democratic Candidate for US President; Former Member, Board of Directors, Amtrak; Lecturer in Political Science and Public Policy, Northeastern University and the University of California, Los Angeles
• Edgard Gouveia, Jr. Ashoka Fellow; Cofounder, Elos Institute, Brazil; Architect
• Gregg Steinberg President, International Profit Associates, Founder, HybriCore

Tufts Lecturers and Advisers include:

• Julian Agyeman, Urban and Environmental Planning
• Astier Almedom, The Fletcher School and IGL Fellow
• Edith Balbach, Community Health
• Jeff Berry, Political Science
• David Dapice, Economics
• David Guss, Anthropology
• David Gute, Civil Engineering
• Anna Hardman, Economics
• Anne Helwege, Urban and Environmental Planning
• Steve Hirsch, Classics
• Justin Hollander, Urban and Environmental Planning
• Shafiqul Islam, Civil Engineering
• William Moomaw, The Fletcher School
• Barbara M. Parmenter, Urban and Environmental Planning
• Kent Portney, Political Science
• Marc Sommers, The Fletcher School
• Chris Swan, Civil Engineering

EPIIC Weekend Immersion | "Mega-Cities"

September 12-14, 2008 Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, L.L. Bean Mountain Center, Newry, Maine

Resource Scholar: Janice Perlman

Dr. Perlman is the Founder and President of The Mega-Cities Project, Inc., a global non-profit organization (with consultative status to UN ECOSOC) whose mission is: "to shorten the lag time between ideas and implementation"— particularly at the intersection of income generation, environmental re-generation and participatory democracy. Prior to founding the Mega-Cities Project, Dr. Perlman was a tenured Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. Outside of academia, Dr. Perlman served as Coordinator of The Inter-Agency Task Force on Neighborhoods of President Carter's National Urban Policy; Executive Director of Strategic Planning for the New York City Partnership; and Director of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the New York Academy of Sciences. Her publications include: The Myth of Marginality: Urban Politics and Poverty in Rio de Janeiro and her forthcoming book, FAVELA: The Dynamics of Urban Poverty in Rio de Janeiro, 1968-2005.

More information

Institute Scholars and Practitioners in Residence (INSPIRE)

Mike Davis Professor of History, University of California/Irvine; Author, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the U.S. Big City, Dead Cities and Other Tales, Planet of Slums: Urban Involution and the Informal Working Class; Coeditor, Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neo-Liberalism; Recipient, Architectural Guild 2004 Erich Shelling Architekturpreis 2004 ("outstanding contribution towards the architecture-theoretical discourse"); 1998 MacArthur Fellow

Robert Neuwirth Journalist; Author, Stealth of Nations: The Global Reach of the Informal Economy (forthcoming) and Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World; Former Contributing Editor, City Limits and Metropolis Magazine; Recipient, Robert I Friedman Award for International Investigative Reporting; Former Adjunct Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; Former Instructor, LaGuardia Community College, Riker's Island Jail

Texts

• Required and Recommended over TWO semesters, include:
• The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny and Globalization's Rough Landscape, Harm de Blij
• The Endless City, Ricky Burdett and Sudjic Deyan (eds.)
• Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, Suketu Mehta
• The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution, Thomas J. Campanella
• The Unfinished City: New York and the Metropolitan Idea, Thomas Bender
• Planet of Slums, Mike Davis
• Cities in a World Economy, Saskia Sassen
• Cities People Planet: Urban Development and Climate Change, Herbert Giradet
• State of the World's Cities 2006/7: The Millennium Development Goals and Urban Sustainability, UN-HABITAT
• Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously: Economic Development, the Environment, and Quality of Life in American Cities, Kent E. Portney
• Indefensible Space: The Architecture of the National Insecurity State, Michael Sorkin
• Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World, Robert Neuwirth

Research

EPIIC also provides for unusual opportunities for students to conduct research related to its annual theme, both at home and abroad. Last year students traveled to Bolivia, Cambodia, China, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Peru, and the United Arab Emirates. Research topics can include: computer modeling and simulations for cities of the future; cities as centers of great architecture; graffiti and urban art; the peri-urban zones where rural and urban areas collide; alternate realities, of Las Vegas, or Dubai's gilded archipelago of private islands, Soleri's Arcosanti; the impact of climate change; global banking, corruption and the impact on the public commons; the fate of shrinking cities; the importance of immigration to the growth of cities; street vending, entrepreneurial ingenuity, and the informal economies of cities; the transformation of Medellin, Colombia; the impact of preparing for the World Cup on post-Apartheid Johannesburg; post-disaster urban relief scenarios; the status of the urban working poor; the desegregation/resegregation of U.S. cities; surbanization and the edgeless city; India's plans for five hundred new cities; and subterranean city environments such as Rome's catacombs or New York City's subway system. Participate in the first conference of the Managing World Cities Project: Hong Kong, London, and New York in Hong Kong. Hong Kong, London and New York are three of the world's great cities: each is a major financial and metropolitan centre, a key regional hub, and a global icon. At the same time, these three world cities face common governance challenges. This global research initiative, scheduled over four years in the first instance, seeks to explore those challenges comparatively across the three cities and their regional hinterlands.

The Norris and Margery Bendetson EPIIC International Symposium

February 19-22, 2009 More information here The international symposium is an annual public forum designed and enacted by the EPIIC students. It features scores of international practitioners, academics, public intellectuals, activists and journalists in panel discussions and workshops.

This year's Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award recipients include:

Geoffrey Canada
/CEO of Harlem Children's Zone; Author, Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence in America; Recipient, Heinz Award; Named one of "America's Best Leaders" by U.S. News and World Report; Founder, Chang Moo Kwan Martial Arts School; East Coast Regional Coordinator, Black Community Crusade for Children

Harm de Blij
Distinguished Professor of Geography, Michigan State University; Former Editor, National Geographic Society, Author, Why Geography Matters, Geography: Realms, Regions and Concepts, and The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny and Globalization's Rough Landscape; Former Geography Editor, ABC's "Good Morning America"

Advisers and Panelists include:

Reuben Abraham Clinical Assistant Professor of Business and Director, Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Learning Lab India, Indian School of Business; Cofounder, Rural Infrastructure and Services Commons Project Stephan de Beer Ashoka Fellow; Managing Director, Tshwane Leadership Foundation, South Africa

Peter Droege Conjoint Professorship, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia; Senior Advisor, Beijing Municipal Institute for City Planning and Design

Alex Kotlowitz Author, There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America and Never a City So Real: A Walk in Chicago

Arbind Singh Ashoka Fellow; Executive Director, Nidan, India

Sudhir Venkatesh Author, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor and American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto

Special Projects and Opportunities

Divided Cities Participate in an analysis of previously and current divided cities, such as Boston, Berlin, Brussels, Beirut, Haifa, Jerusalem, Kirkuk, Kano, Sarajevo with Institute INSPIRE Fellow, Professor Padraig O'Malley, the Moakley Professor of Peace and Reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts/Boston Urban Youth Violence Investigate the causes and consequences of the growing epidemic of youth violence in U.S. cities and the urban areas of Central America, with Teny Oded Gross (EPIIC'93), the executive director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Non Violence, and Ina Breuer, executive director of The Project on Justice in Times of Transition

Affordable Housing in Ethiopia and Beyond Collaborate with HybriCore and students and faculty at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia to conduct a feasibility study and needs assessment for affordable housing and for building a cultural center in Adwa

Design for the Other 90% Investigate ";Design for the Other 90%", a movement among designers, engineers, and social entrepreneurs to create low-cost solutions to the basic challenges of survival and progress faced by the world's poor, working with curator Cynthia Smith

Urban Warfare Work on an analysis of siege and urban guerilla warfare; engage in simulations of ";three block" warfare to understand the complex spectrum of challenges faced by soldiers on the urban battlefield with the IGL's ALLIES program, The Army War College, and the Peacekeeping, Stability Operations Institute

EMPOWER: Social Entrepreneurship and Poverty Alleviation Address issues of urban poverty through internships and research with the global networks of ACCION, Kiva, SCOJO, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and Skoll through the IGL's EMPOWER program

International Resilience Program Work on a joint analysis of promoting resilience and the health of the emotional ecosystem of displaced communities in New York City and New Orleans with Dr. Astier Almedom, director of the International Resilience Program and IGL Fellow, and Dr. Mindy Fullilove, author of Root Shock and co-director of ";Gulf Coast Recovers"

Banking and Real Estate in Boston Research and investigation into the background and consequences of banking and loan practices, predatory mortgages, and foreclosures in the communities of the City of Boston with Elyse Cherry, Chief Executive Officer of Boston Community Capital and President of the Boston Community Venture Fund, as well as a member of the IGL's External Advisory Board

Inquiry

EPIIC's high school global issues simulation program will focus this year on the rebuilding of New Orleans and the future of Mumbai, India. All students in EPIIC participate in mentoring high school students and in the culminating simulation held at Tufts, April 2-5, 2009. For those interested in working with high school students or in EPIIC's topic but unable to commit the required time, there is a full credit, two-semester option to participate in the Inquiry Teaching Group (EXP 91AF). More information here

International Students and EPIIC

Last year, as part of its commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, EPIIC brought 54 students from 11 countries and 15 international universities to participate in its symposium. This year, that number will grow as will the opportunity to conduct joint research on urban issues with students from Brazil, China, Guatemala, Haiti, Ethiopia, Finland, India, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria, Rwanda, Peru, Singapore, and South Korea.

Outward Bound

What better way to begin EPIIC's "intellectual outward bound" then to immerse the students in an actual adventure weekend that melds physical and mental challenges?

EPIIC and the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School as well as Boston University's Sargent Camp have had a strategic alliance for the last five years. Each fall, the EPIIC colloquium travels to the woods of New Hampshire and Maine for a weekend of team building activities with resident instructors and lectures by the distinguished individuals who work throughout the year with the class.

September 12-14, 2008
Hurricane Island Outward Bound School,
L.L. Bean Mountain Center, Newry, Maine

Resource Scholar: Janice Perlman
Dr. Perlman is the Founder and President of The Mega-Cities Project, Inc., a global non-profit organization (with consultative status to UN ECOSOC) whose mission is: "to shorten the lag time between ideas and implementation"— particularly at the intersection of income generation, environmental re-generation and participatory democracy. Prior to founding the Mega-Cities Project, Dr. Perlman was a tenured Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. Outside of academia, Dr. Perlman served as Coordinator of The Inter-Agency Task Force on Neighborhoods of President Carter's National Urban Policy; Executive Director of Strategic Planning for the New York City Partnership; and Director of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the New York Academy of Sciences. Her publications include: The Myth of Marginality: Urban Politics and Poverty in Rio de Janeiro and her forthcoming book, FAVELA: The Dynamics of Urban Poverty in Rio de Janeiro, 1968-2005.