Speakers Vivek Badrinath CEO, Orange Business Services
Pablo Farias Vice President of Economic and Assets Program, Ford Foundation
Ron Huldai Mayor of Tel Aviv
Kasim Reed
Partnering for Better Cities
Mayor of Atlanta
Plenary Session, Wednesday 16 May, 09:00 - 10:00
Overview The sharing across borders of knowledge, experience, and
Introduced and Moderated by
lessons learned is key to the cooperation of cities. Whether your city
Saskia Sassen
is Tel Aviv or Atlanta, each city can learn from one another, making
Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology; Co-Chair, The Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University
the concept of “building together” important in addressing today’s and tomorrow’s urban challenges. Saskia Sassen introduces two main challenges that global cities are presently facing. First, in a global economy, the idea that all economies seem to become similar is not completely true. This is because cities, in order to compete with one another, need to be specialized. If the global standards of building a city homogenize the built environment, the way it has been used and is still used by its communities, is making the difference. The second challenge for Sassen is the need to take inequalities, unemployment and poverty into account. 48
Click here to watch full session on YouTube: Link to Yo u t u b e Video of the session