This handbook summarizes six discussions from the Urban Age Programme, which explores how cities are adapting to significant global changes. Established in 2004, the program investigates urban growth, climate action, and democratic governance amidst evolving challenges. It highlights the shifting dynamics in urban development, including the impact of financial sectors, green growth, and societal issues like gentrification and populism, emphasizing the complexities cities face in the 2020s.
2022
This handbook is summarizing six debates / conversations that took place in 2021/2022 within the program: URBAN AGE DEBATES CITIES IN THE 2020S: AN EXPLORATION OF HOW CITIES ARE RESPONDING TO PROFOUND GLOBAL CHANGE The Urban Age Programme was established as a worldwide investigation into the future of cities in 2004, not long before the headline-grabbing moment when the majority of the world’s population were urban rather than rural dwellers. At that time urban growth projections based on extrapolation of recent trends were reliable, the possibility of gradual carbon emission reduction to achieve a safe climate was still possible and urban democracy was a project motiv- ating decentralisation reforms and city leadership. Since then, many of the certainties that were directly connected with a global narrative about cities have been challenged: the role of the financial sector, urban green growth, a cosmopolitan insulation against populism, the trickle-down potential of super- star cities, gentrification without displacement, the purpose of consumer cities, and manageable levels of planetary extraction to support city building.