Changing Cities - Linking Global Knowledge to Local Action
26-28 September 2011
East-West Center, Imin International Conference Center
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
By Invitation Only
The East-West Center and the Penn Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania are co-hosting a three-day seminar to examine and exchange views on knowledge dissemination as a critical tool for managing urban development, especially in the cities and mega-regions of Asia.
Discussions will revolve 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 will address the challenges 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.
At this small invitation-only gathering, city officials, policymakers, civil society and business leaders, urban planning practitioners and scholars from across Asia, the US and elsewhere will share their diverse experiences and perspectives on ways to accelerate the movement of critical knowledge and increase opportunities for cities and their stakeholders to use this knowledge effectively. In doing so, the dialogue will focus on practical examples related to contemporary urban development.
Seminar Themes
- Urban Planning and Competing Land Uses
- Energy and Transport Systems
- The Urban Water Cycle and Urban Health
- Social Equity in Economic Development
- Governance and Management Structures
Exploration of the common critical concerns that surround these five themes will illuminate pathways, organizations and priorities that can lead to the identification and transfer of specialized knowledge to drive resilient and inclusive urban development.
Seminar Outcomes
Key expected outcomes include:
1. Group consensus on a proposed three-year research and action agenda that will:
- Promote more effective urban knowledge exchange and transfer among communities of policymakers, practitioners and beneficiaries in cities and mega-regions throughout Asia and the U.S.
- Recommend improved governance mechanisms to enable and ensure that specialized knowledge is widely available and more easily applied.
- Identify topics and activities and suggests partners who may wish to join the East-West Center and the Penn Institute for Urban Research in undertaking new research, pilot studies and programmatic activities aimed at fostering the removal of barriers to knowledge-sharing in each of the policy and practice areas.
2. A monograph that captures a common understanding of the potential of knowledge-sharing to drive resilient and include urban development policy and practice, as well as a sophisticated appreciation of barriers to effective knowledge-sharing drawn from the commissioned papers and group discussions.
