Course Code: SC
Term: November 2016
Start Date: Nov 15 2016
End Date: Mar 1 2017
Duration: 16 weeks
This course has ended
November 2016
Description
Cities are home to half the world’s seven billion people and contribute to about 75% of global economic output. An additional three billion people are estimated to live in cities by 2050, increasing the urban share of the world’s population to two-thirds.
Yet, cities and urban areas across the world face major challenges: poverty, unemployment, poor housing and lack of basic services for over 1 billion slum dwellers, constraints on productivity due to lack of basic infrastructure, and a concentration risk due to natural disasters and climate change. This classical view of the city, as a site of inextricable problems has inhibited interest and investment in them as sites of opportunity and change.
Sustainable cities build on the extraordinary potential of urban areas to enable change due to concentration of economic activity, innovation and job creation; the potential for social transformation, high levels of concentration of culture, people, infrastructure and buildings and the ability to redefine the relationship between rural and urban, to enable rural prosperity.
Recognising this, in September 2015, member-countries of the United Nations, adopted a historic stand-along goal on Sustainable Cities “to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable“ by 2030, leaving no person and no place behind.
This course explores what Sustainable cities are all about. It examines how urban sustainability can be delivered: how cities function as systems of systems; how we can increase urban productivity and reduce urban poverty and inequality, enable urban inclusion and safety; provide universal basic services, housing and infrastructure; protect the urban environment, reduce risk and vulnerability . It further explores what actions need to be taken to improve urban governance and financing for sustainable development and key institutions and agents that can make this possible.
The course delivered by global thought leaders and practitioners aims to equip participants with an interdisciplinary understanding of thinking and practices on Sustainable Cities. It blends practical experiences and cases from cities and regions in five continents, along with urban theory to help develop an understanding of the key issues and responses to the challenge of sustainable urbanisation.
The course is led and curated by Aromar Revi, Director of IIHS, members of the Urban SDG Campaign and leading urbanists. Members of this delivery team were involved in bringing Sustainable Cities into the heart of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) process.
The course is structured around a series of pre-recorded lectures, readings, live webinars, quizzes, discussion forums, and other activities. Each of these course components can be completed at a time that is convenient for the student. The material for each week is made available each Wednesday 00:00 UTC, and once the material has been opened, it remains open for the duration of the course. There are no written assignments for this course.
In addition to the asynchronous components of the course, some key experts will hold real-time webinars to encourage students to ask questions and engage directly with the questions of sustainability. These webinars will be announced 1-2 weeks in advance. The estimated time commitment to complete all course components is 4-6 hours per week, though this depends heavily on the student and her objectives in taking the course.
All students who successfully complete the course will receive a digital certificate of completion, signed by the instructors. In order to successfully complete the course, students must score an average of 70% or higher on the quizzes. Students that score 85% or higher will receive certificates of proficiency with distinction. While this course is not credit granting, we encourage students to work with their own institutions to explore the option of granting credit for online coursework.
If you have any additional questions on the course structure or requirements, please email the IIHS MOOC team at citiesmooc@iihs.ac.in or SDG Academy Team at sdgacademy@unsdsn.org. For technical questions about the platform, please email support@edcast.com.
Module 1: 31 May - 06 Jun 2017
LECTURE 1 The Urban Opportunity
Chapter 1. The Urban Opportunity (I&II) - Aromar Revi, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), Bangalore
Chapter 2. Cities as centers of cultural and social transformation (I&II) - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 3. The challenge of urban politics, planning and governance (I&II) - Edgar Pieterse, UCT, ACC, Cape Town
Advanced Chapters
Chapter 4. Urban research and methods - Eugenie Birch, University of Pennsylvania, Penn IUR, Philadelphia
Chapter 5. Urban theory and history - Susan Parnell, University of Cape Town, African Center for Cities, Cape Town
Module 2: 07 Jun - 13 Jun 2017
LECTURE 2 What makes a city function?
Chapter 1. Understanding Urban Systems - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 2. Municipal, regional and national governance - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 3. Urban Utilities and Services - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 4. Urban Public Finance and Taxation - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 1b. Lessons from London and Mumbai on how cities function - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 2. Land Management and planning (I&II) - Raf Tuts, UN-Habitat, Nairobi
Chapter 5. Law, order and conflict - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
29 Nov - 05 Dec 2016
CATCH-UP WEEK-1
Module 3: 06 Dec - 12 Dec 2016
LECTURE 3 How can we reduce urban poverty and make cities inclusive and safe?
Chapter 1.What is urban poverty? -David Satterthwaite,International Institute for Environmental Development, London
Chapter 2. Cities as sites for poverty reduction - William Cobbett, Cities Alliance, Brussels
Chapter 3. Affordable and adequate housing - Gautam Bhan, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 4. Inclusive urban development - Eugenie Birch, University of Pennsylvania, Penn IUR, Philadelphia
Chapter 5. Safety and violence - Joshua Castellino, Middlesex University, School of Law, London
Module 4: 13 Dec - 19 Dec 2016
LECTURE 4 How can we make cities productive and reduce inequality?
Chapter 1. Cities as loci of production - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 2a. Women in the Informal Economy - Renana Jhabvala, WIEGO/SEWA Bharat, Delhi
Chapter 2b. Case Study of SEWA, India - Renana Jhabvala, WIEGO/SEWA Bharat, Delhi
Chapter 3. Migration, mobility and the urban-rural continuum - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 4. A Perspective on migration and the refugee crisis - Clare Short, Cities Alliance (CA), Manchester
Chapter 5. Wealth and inequality in urban areas - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
20 Dec 2016 - 02 Jan 2017
WINTER BREAK
Module 5: 03 Jan - 09 Jan 2017
LECTURE 5 How can we improve human development in cities?
Chapter 1. Human rights and justice - Joshua Castellino, Middlesex University, School Law, London
Chapter 2. Urban Health - Srinath Reddy, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Delhi
Chapter 3. Education and skills - Chandrika Bahadur, SDG Academy, Delhi
Chapter 4. Gender in the city - Gautam Bhan, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 5. Case study: South African Cities - Susan Parnell, University of Cape Town, ACC, Cape Town
Module 6: 10 Jan - 16 Jan 2017
LECTURE 6 How can we provide universal urban services and infrastructure?
Chapter 1. Sustainable environmental services and infrastructure- Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 2. Sustainable transport planning- Peter Newman, Curtin University, Perth
Chapter 3. Information, Communication, and Technology- Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University, New York
Chapter 4. Sustainable energy- Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 5. Case study: Bangkok- Apiwat Ratanawaraha, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
Module 7: 17 Jan - 23 Jan 2017
LECTURE 7 How can the urban environment be protected?
Chapter 1. Air, water, food and natural resources - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 2. Urban agriculture for sustainable cities - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 3. Environmental planning, management and the politics of change- Raf Tuts, UN-Habitat, Nairobi
Chapter 4. Case study: Durban- Debra Roberts, EThekwini Municipality, Durban
24 Jan - 30 Jan 2017
CATCH-UP WEEK - 2
Module 8: 31 Jan - 6 Feb 2017
LECTURE 8 How can we achieve urban resilience?
Chapter 1. How do cities accumulate risk exposure? - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 2. Urban risks and vulnerabilities - Allan Lavell, FLASCO, San Jose
Chapter 3a. Climatic impacts, adaptation and mitigation Part 1- Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 3b. Climatic impacts, adaptation and mitigation in Chinese Cities - Seth Schultz, C40 Cities, New York
Chapter 4. Post-disaster Recovery - Kamal Kishore, National Disaster Management Authority, Delhi
Chapter 5. Building Urban Resilience - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Module 9: 7 Feb - 13 Feb 2017
LECTURE 9 How can cities and urban areas be governed better to make them more sustainable?
Chapter 1. New institutions and forms governance - Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 2. Public participation and democracy-Edgar Pieterse, UCT, African Center for Cities, Cape Town
Chapter 3. Financing Sustainable Development- Michael Cohen, The New School University, New York
Chapter 4. SDGs and other global processes - Part 1- Aromar Revi, IIHS, Bangalore
Chapter 5. SDGs and other global processes - Part 2 - Eduardo Moreno, UN-Habitat, Nairobi
Chapter 6. Addressing the Opportunities of Secondary Cities - David Simon, Mistra Urban Futures, London
Module 10: 14 Feb - 20 Feb 2017
LECTURE 10 Who can enable and implement this change?
Chapter 1a. Local, regional and national government leadership - Edgardo Bilsky, UCLG, Barcelona
Chapter 1b. Local leadership: a case study of Melbourne - John Thwaites, Monash University, Melbourne
Chapter 2: International Development Agencies - Gino Van Begin and Eduardo Moreno, ICLEI and UN-Habitat
Chapter 3. Urban innovation: community based organisations and civil society - Sheela Patel, SDI/SPARC, Mumbai
Chapter 4. Urban research and methods - Eugenie Birch, University of Pennsylvania, Penn IUR, Philadelphia
Chapter 5. The 9-point agenda to achieve sustainable cities - Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University, New York
21 Feb - 27 Feb 2017
FINAL ASSESSMENTS WEEK
Credits
Curator and Lead Faculty - Aromar Revi
Media Directors - Subasri Krishnan and Yashodara Udupa
Programme Coordinator - Garima Jain
Camera - Kunal Deshpande, Yashodara Udupa and Zohrab Reys Gamat
Additional Camera: Isaac Berner
Light Assistance: Shekhar
Sound: Jamie D’silva and Rakesh U.P.
Additional Sound - Kunal Deshpande, Subasri Krishnan, Zohrab Reys Gamat Editing - Sandhya Kumar and Yashodara Udupa Additional Editing - Zohrab Reys Gamat Graphics - Radhamohini Prasad
Additional Assistance with Graphics - Arindam Jana, Charrlotte Adelina P, Mohan Raju JS
Video and Sound Post-Production - Pradeep Nayak
Research Assistance - Aishwarya Balasubramanian, Ana Abbas, Anushree Deb, Amrita Chattopadhyay, Jessica George, Rahael Kuruvilla, Sarita Pillay, Sushmita Ramoji, Suman Barat, Teja Malladi
Additional Content Assistance - Neha Sami
Production - Ananth Kumar, Kailash Singh Rawat, Neelufer Aslam, Pancham Singh Rawat, Puttaswamy, Sanjay Kumar Pal, Sreejith Suresh
Location Production Assistance: Alicia Fortuin, Sfanele Ntuli, Siphiwe 'Zane' Silinda
Legal Assistance - Amlanjyoti Goswami, Kaye Lushington, Amrita Basu Mallik, Karuna Sharma
Transcription - Anurag Dasgupta, Asha Mavinasara, Masoom Parmar, Nikita Vidhyalankar, Satyavrat Krishnakumar, Shaurya Singh, Teesta Krishnan Sinha
Equipment hire - Adams, Vineet Videos, Wildclickz
Locations:
Amsterdam
Bangkok
Bengaluru
Berlin
Brussels
Cape Town
Copenhagen
Durban
Jakarta
Johannesburg
London
Mumbai
Nairobi
New Delhi
New York
Paris
Perth
Singapore
Thanks to
African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town (UCT)
Chulalongkorn University
Cities Alliance
Columbia University, Earth Institute
Curtin University
C40
eThekwini Municipality
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales(FLACSO)
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
Middlesex University
Mistra Urban Futures
Monash University
Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR)
Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI)
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)
SEWA Bharat - All India Federation of Self Employed Women’s Association
Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI)
The New School University
United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG)
UN-Habitat
UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)
Acknowledgements
Angshuman Das; David McEwen; Holger Kuhle; Jahnavi G.H.; Mohammad Fayaz; Capt. K Pooja Vasanth (Retd); Rebecca Heines ; Sandeep Kumar Mitra; Swastik Harish; Varalakshmi; Vidya Jindal
Producer
Chandrika Bahadur for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) SDG Academy
This course was made possible through the generous support provided to the SDG Academy by the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation
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Sustainable Cities
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