Global Urbanism Biennial Theme Opening Lecture 

 What Not To Do: Notes from the 20^th Century Urbanization Experience for 21^st Century Planners

Standing at the midpoint of a period of global urbanization, it is important that we do not repeat planning approaches borne of the last century. But breaking old habits is difficult. Elliott Sclar, Professor of Urban Planning at Columbia University and Director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development within the Columbia Earth Institute, will discuss the challenges of contemporary urbanization and the ways in which they differ from those of the last century.  If 21^st century cities are to succeed as environmentally viable economic entities they will need to be grounded in new understandings of the social and physical context in which 21^st century urban life is embedded. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Elliott Sclar is the director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) at Columbia University's Earth Institute; He is a professor of urban planning in Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. An economist and urban planner, Professor Sclar's research interests include urban economic development planning, transportation and land use planning, and the economics and finance of public services and infrastructure. CSUD is one of eight global centers of excellence in Future Urban Transport supported by the Volvo Foundations of Gothenburg, Sweden. CSUD’s major project currently is addressing the infrastructure and land use challenges of metropolitan growth in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sclar was a co-coordinator of the Taskforce on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers, one of ten task forces set up by the UN Millennium Project to aid in the implementation of the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals. He was a lead author on the Taskforce's book length report (2005): A Home in the City.

Professor Sclar is a nationally recognized expert on the economics of privatization: his book You Don't Always Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Privatization (Cornell 2000) won two major academic prizes: the Louis Brownlow Award for the Best Book of 2000 from the National Academy of Public Administration and the 2001 Charles Levine Prize from the International Political Science Association and Governance magazine for a major contribution to public policy literature.

Sclar is the senior editor on the 2012 volume of studies focused on the urbanization challenges of the Global South. The Urban Transformation: Health, Shelter and Climate Change, published by Routledge. In 2014 Sclar edited a collection of papers looking at urban transport finance - Urban Access for the 21^st Century: Finance and governance models for transport infrastructure (Routledge). He is presently completing work on a second volume on urban transport finance to be published in late 2016.

WANT A COPY OF THE NEW BIENNIAL THEME POSTER? 

Contact Marcela Caro, mcaro@gaiacenters.rutgers.edu