LSE Cities

We were joined by Alex Baum, Programme and Systems Manager at BYCS - an Amsterdam-based global NGO supporting community-led urban change through cycling. Alex's keynote focused on how to create bicycle friendly cities for women and carers, as well as introduced their new Toolkit addressing why and how policymakers and practitioners can encourage care journey uptake. It particularly targets mothers and other women who care for children, who perform a considerable and sometimes disproportionate amount of caregiving labour, as well as trips. 

A panel discussion then investigated urban mobility through a gender lens, with an emphasis on how women experience public space and active transportation, and built on the subject by looking at gender inequalities in urban cycling, public space, and care infrastructure.

Speakers and Chair 

Alex Baum is the Programs and Systems Manager at BYCS (@BYCS_org), an Amsterdam-based global NGO supporting community lead urban change through cycling. His work focuses on connecting global changemakers and amplifying their work through these connections. 

Camila Herrero (@CamHerrero) is the Policy and Cycling Inclusion Manager at BYCS. A cycling advocate and urbanist, she studied International Relations and Urban Geography, and has contributed to diverse programmes and projects for international organisations such as ITDP Mexico and BikeNCity, as well as regional and local governments in Latin America.

Tiffany Lam is an expert on inclusive active travel and has worked with cities and organisations in the UK, US, Europe and Latin America to promote cycling equity. Currently as the Strategy Lead — Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Sustrans (@Sustrans), Tiffany is leading efforts to embed equity across Sustrans’ work and make it a more diverse and inclusive organisation.  

Chair

Philipp Rode (@PhilippRode) is Executive Director of LSE Cities and Associate Professorial Lecturer at the School of Public Policy. He is Co-Director of the LSE Executive MSc in Cities and Visiting Professor at University of St Gallen’s Institute for Mobility. 

Find out more about the Urban95 Academy.

Read and download BYCS' Increasing Access to Cycling Mobilities of Care Toolkit .

LSE Cities (@LSECities) is an international centre that investigates the complexities of the contemporary city. It carries out research, graduate and executive education, engagement and advisory activities in London and abroad.

You can read the publication here.

We were delighted to be joined by Mohamed Ridouani, Mayor of Leuven, and Anna Lisa Boni, Deputy Mayor at the Municipality of Bologna, James Anderson, Head of Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Ben Rogers, Director of the European Cities Programme at LSE Cities, to discuss the future of urban Europe. 

Meet our Speakers and Chair

James Anderson (@JamesAnderson) leads the Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. The program helps city leaders solve their most vexing challenges through innovation, data and evidence, and collaboration through its work with hundreds of mayors and thousands of local officials in cities around the world each year. Previously, he served as communications director to New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. 

Anna Lisa Boni (@annalisaboni2) is the Deputy Mayor for the municipality of Bologna responsible for EU/recovery funds, ecological transition and international relations. Previously she was the secretary general of Eurocities for over seven years, representing the voice of 200 big cities across Europe. She has 30 years of professional experience in EU public affairs in the field of local and regional government.

Mohamed Ridouani (@MohamedRidouani) is Mayor of the city of Leuven and was previously responsible for education, sustainability, economy and urban development. He stands for positive change and aims to turn Leuven into one of the most caring, green and prosperous cities in Europe, in cooperation with the citizens, knowledge institutions, companies and organisations. 

Ben Rogers (@ben_rog) is the Bloomberg Distinguished Fellow in Government Innovation and Director of the European Cities Programme at LSE Cities. He is also Professor of Practice at the University of London and former Director and founder of Centre for London, an influential think tank on London policy, with an international following. He writes on cities, citizenship, public service reform and the built environment.

Ricky Burdett (@burdettr) is Professor of Urban Studies and Director of LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Twitter hashtag: #LSEEurope

LSE Cities (@LSECities) is an international centre that investigates the complexities of the contemporary city. It carries out research, graduate and executive education, engagement and advisory activities in London and abroad.

We live in a world of quick fixes. In business, government, and society, we celebrate the entrepreneurs, hackers, and disruptors who try to deal with change by finding shortcuts. They give us a sense that any big problem can be resolved by a daring, often technological solution. But, as the past decades have repeatedly shown, these quick fixes are nothing more than an illusion. It turns out that there is no technical fix to climate change, injustice, discrimination, pollution, or rising inequality. In his new book The Slow Lane: Why Quick Fixes Fail and How to Achieve Real Change, Sascha Haselmayer offers his insights into the principles and mindsets by which real change in cities and communities comes about. In this event he will share some of the stories that shape The Slow Lane - How a Caracas slum became a beacon of democracy in Venezuela for over thirty years. How waste pickers in Peruvian cities made municipal waste management fit for a zero-waste future. And how a movement that is ending homelessness in U.S. cities is quietly restoring racial equity in municipal services in Brownsville, New York. He will be joined to discuss his ideas by Tessy Britton a social designer and founder of Participatory City and Julia King a design practitioner and policy fellow at LSE Cities. Speaker Sascha Haselmayer (@LLGACities) is an architect, author and social entrepreneur who has spent the past 30 years helping cities around the world solve problems. He has worked as an adviser to philanthropies and think tanks, like the Rockefeller Foundation and The Aspen Institute; and to governments and public institutions like The Government of South Africa, The World Bank Group, and the Nordic Council of Ministers. In 2011, I was awarded the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship. Discussants

Tessy Britton (@TessyBritton) is a social designer based in Edinburgh. She is the Founder of Participatory City where she was Chief Executive until 2021 and is dedicated to designing social infrastructure for social cohesion, by creating new ways of making our everyday lives more inclusive, creative and circular. She is an Ashoka Fellow and has worked on a number of international projects, including supporting Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor’s Challenge. Julia King (@atjuliaking) is a Policy Fellow at LSE Cities and a design practitioner. Trained as an architect her research, design practice, and teaching focus on urban marginalization, infrastructure, and micro-economies. She is the director of the ‘Apprenticeship Programme in City Design’ and ‘Researcher in Residence’ scheme at LSE Cities. She has won numerous awards for her work including Emerging Woman Architect of the Year (2014), NLA Award, Civic Trust Regional Award and short-listed for a Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award. Chair

Ricky Burdett (@burdettr) is Professor of Urban Studies and Director of LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

------

LSE Cities (@LSECities) is an international centre that investigates the complexities of the contemporary city. It carries out research, graduate and executive education, engagement and advisory activities in London and abroad.

Europe’s cities and nations have long been uneasy partners. As the challenges of the 2020s mount — from political polarisation to aging populations to climate change — relations between urban and national governments in Europe are coming under increasing pressure. City leaders seem ever more ready to take a stand against national governments on questions like housing policy (Lisbon), LGBT rights (Italy), public finances (Paris), or democracy (Hungary and Poland). 

This event asks how urban-national political relationships have evolved in Europe in recent decades; what new tensions and alliances are emerging; and what role cities can play in shaping the direction of national and continental politics.  

Ben Rogers, Director of the European Cities Programme at LSE Cities, will be joined by Aziza Akhmouch, Head of Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development at the OECD and Neil Lee, Professor of Economic Geography at the LSE, to reflect on the shifting balance of power between European cities and nations, and what this means for Europe’s future. 

About the Speakers and Chair
Aziza Akhmouch (@Akhmouch) is the Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development division within the Centre for entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities of the OECD. She oversees a team of 30+ experts providing governments with new data, evidence, analysis and guidance in a wide range of urban policies to foster smart, inclusive, competitive and sustainable cities.  

Neil Lee (@ndrlee) is Professor of Economic Geography at LSE. He convenes the Cities, Jobs and Economic Change theme in the International Inequalities Institute and is Director of BSc Geography with Economics. He is Chair of the Policy Committee of the Regional Studies Association and has worked with public and private sector organisations including the World Bank, the OECD, the European Commission, and the UK government.

Ben Rogers (@ben_rog) is Bloomberg Distinguished Fellow in Government Innovation and Director of the European Cities Programme at LSE Cities. He is also Professor of Practice at the University of London and former Director and founder of Centre for London, an influential think tank on London policy, with an international following. He writes on cities, citizenship, public service reform and the built environment. 

Simon Glendinning (@lonanglo) is Head of the European Institute and Professor in European Philosophy at LSE. Simon has a BPhil and a DPhil in Philosophy from Oxford University. His current research interests include the question of European identity. He is the author of Europe: A Philosophical History – Beyond Modernity. 

------

LSE Cities (@LSECities) is an international centre that investigates the complexities of the contemporary city. It carries out research, graduate and executive education, engagement and advisory activities in London and abroad.

The European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe.