Cities have the potential to be great drivers of improvements in human wellbeing. And yet, poverty is an unrelenting feature of urban life. Addressing urban poverty and inequality is as much an infrastructure challenge as it is a challenge requiring political and social transformation. This collection of ESRC-DFID-funded research interrogates what makes cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable in times when migration and urbanisation processes are intensifying globally.
The studies from Bangladesh, Cape Verde, Nepal, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Timor-Leste articulate that the everyday lived realities of the most marginalised or least resourced urban residents matter, and are relevant to different scales of development and governance from hyper-local issues to global advocacy around urban sustainability through the New Urban Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Focus projects:
