Changing Cities: Linking Global Knowledge to Local Action

Penn IUR Expert Roundtable

The East-West Center and Penn IUR are hosted a three-day expert seminar of approximately 30 key mayors, policymakers, urban planning practitioners, civil society and business leaders, and urban experts and scholars from across Asia and the U.S., primarily. Discussions revolved around a core proposition: that the creation of more resilient and inclusive urban environments over the next century will require the widespread dissemination and adaptation of good practice, innovative policy options, and a growing stock of knowledge that have already appeared or are near emergence.Seminar participants addressed the challenge of identifying and overcoming the barriers that often slow or block efforts to share promising and even proven solutions. Foremost among these are intransigent bureaucracies, disciplinary antagonisms, political antipathies and nation-local divides.