[5 September 2012] -- A new publication from the Woodrow Wilson Center highlights innovative thinking on reducing urban poverty.
Changing Cities: Climate, Youth and Land Markets in Urban Areas features eight essays by graduate students in the field of urban planning and development.
The eight essays were selected through an academic paper competition sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Comparative Urban Studies Project, USAID’s Urban Programs Team, the International Housing Coalition, Cities Alliance, and the World Bank. Launched in 2010, the paper competition seeks to strengthen the ties between urban policymaking and scholarly work on urban development and disseminate evidence-based development programming.
The success of the first competition led the partners to expand the competition in the next year to include the publication of top papers submitted in 2011. The current publication marks the third year of the competition, and the second publication in a series entitled “A New Generation of Ideas.”
The 2012 paper competition, “Reducing Urban Poverty,” focused on three topics: climate change, youth, and land markets and security of tenure. A panel of urban experts representing the sponsoring institutions reviewed over 70 abstract submissions, from which 15 were invited to write full length papers. Of these, eight were selected for this publication.
The essays covered various topics within the three categories:
Climate Change
- “Distributed Energy Innovations in Slums and Informal Settlements” by Allison Bridges
- “Low-Carbon Development and Poverty in Urban China” by Yifei Li
Youth
- “Xool nu bu baax: Hip-Hop, Youth Movements, and Change in Senegal” by Maren Larsen
- “Entitlements and Capabilities of Young ‘Citizens’: Participatory Community Involvement of At-Risk Youth in Argentine Cities” by Valerie Stahl
- “Grassroots English Clubs as Sites of Learning and Democratic Debate in Urban Senegal” by Marika Z. Tsolakis
Land Market s and Security of Tenure
- “Exploring the Effectiveness of Urban Agriculture Producer Organizations in Securing Land Tenure: Two Case Studies from Cotonou, Benin” by Lindsay Grace Carter
- “Recasting the Development Agenda for Informal Land and Housing Markets in Nairobi: A Critical Examination of Actors, Claims, and Urban Governance in Kibera” by Liza Rose Cirolia
- “Community Land Trusts: A Model for Integrating Abuja’s Urban Villages within the City Master Plan” by Simon Gusah
Download Changing Cities: Climate, Youth and Land Markets in Urban Areas (2.8 MB pdf)
