Customized resilience and the New Urban Agenda: Contexts, cultures, and collaborative structures
October 17-21, 2016
Quito, Ecuador
Created and delivered by Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia Yale School of Management, INCAE Business School, Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley FGV-EASP, Sao Paolo in collaboration with 100 Resilient Cities & The Rockefeller Foundation and the City of Quito, Ecuador & Pontificia Universidad Catholica de Ecuador.
Prof. Chandrashekaran talks about the projects students will work on during the week »
Prof. Chandrashekaran discusses why it is exciting that this course will happen during Habitat III »
Course background The world continues to urbanize. By the year 2050, three in four of us will live in cities – making urbanization one of the most transformative trends of the 21st centuy.
To reflect on, and help cities and countries plan for, the complex challenges that will surface from the level of anticipated urbanization, the UN will host in 2016 the third global conference on sustainable urban development – the Habitat III. Held once in twenty years (1976 in Vancouver and 1996 in Istanbul), the 2016 conference will be hosted by the city of Quito, 17-20 October (for an overview of Habitat III, see https://www.habitat3.org/.
Underscoring the urgency of deriving actionable solutions for cities, the ‘Zero Draft’ document of the ‘New Urban Agenda’ articulated by the UN Habitat III notes: “There is a need for a radical paradigm shift in the way cities and human settlements are planned, developed, governed and managed. The decisions we make today will shape our common urban future. …. The New Urban Agenda aims to be concise, action-oriented, forward-looking, universal, and spatially integrative, recognizing distinct globally evolving trends, regional specificity, and transformative potential, as well as taking into account a wide range of realities and contexts, cultures, and historical urban and human settlements landscapes, avoiding a one-size fits-all approach.”
We in the GNAM are fortunate that the Habitat III week happens to be held in the same week we have set aside for Global Network Weeks! In a departure from the model in which each school hosts a GNW on its campus, this course, focusing on the impact of context and culture in shaping resilience strategies, is a collaborative offering to the GNAM network. We will be hosting this GNW in Quito alongside Habitat III.
Please note that this course requires some assignments to be completed before the week, and that the application process is different from the regular GNW application process. For details about applying please ask your MBA Director. All those who are accepted into the Week must register as an official attendee of Habitat III. Registration information can be found here. Please register under “Research and Academia.” Registration closes on October 1st. To learn more about the course, please see the syllabus »