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Programme
download The Programme for Academic year 2008-2009
The economic and social transformations experienced by developing countries have produced major changes in the distribution of the population, producing unprecedented urban growth. Since 1950 the population living in urban areas has increased from three hundred millions to almost two billions and it is expected to more than double by the year 2030. Today, sixteen out of twenty world megacities are in developing countries, highlighting the increasing role cities play in the pursuit of development and sustainability.
Since cities are places of encounter and fulfilment, as well as of differences and tensions, urbanization raises opportunities and problems. Cities are the engine of growth, providing for a disproportionate share of jobs, income opportunities and access to services. At the same time, cities are places of growing social, economic and spatial inequalities, where an increasing number of people live in deprivation resulting in what is now recognized as the ‘urbanization of poverty’. Increasingly subject to natural and human-made disasters as a consequence of poor or no land use control, many cities have also to cope with the settlement of large numbers of people displaced by conflicts.
The challenge of urban growth in developing and transition countries require theoretical approaches and operational tools properly geared to the specific social, economic and institutional conditions. In addition, sustainable urban development and reconstruction projects have to rest upon the recognition of local resources, know how and management capacity.