Reading Development

Random readings on society, politics and change – Jorge Carrillo

Looking at the ‘sharing’ economies concept through the prism of informality

How do the ‘sharing economies’ relate to the long history of informal economic practices as understood in the social sciences? This article examines conceptions of the sharing economy in terms … Continue reading →

Thursday, 29 November 2018 · Leave a comment

Cities and the political imagination

How can we recognize the political in the city? How might urban scholars engage with forms of urban politics outside of established sites of research such as those associated with … Continue reading →

Sunday, 18 November 2018 · Leave a comment

In Search of a Decolonial Urban Transformation

“We ask whether the WBGU report Humanity on the Move, as a major catalyst for urban sustainability science and agency, reproduces ways of thinking that could ultimately contradict the idea of … Continue reading →

Wednesday, 7 November 2018 · Leave a comment

How does resilience change over time?

Knowing how climate hazards affect people’s resilience over time is crucial in designing more effective development and humanitarian interventions. This is particularly important in post-disaster contexts, where people’s livelihood opportunities … Continue reading →

Monday, 29 October 2018 · Leave a comment

Cloud Communities: The Dawn of Global Citizenship?

New digital technologies are rapidly changing the global economy and have connected billions of people in deterritoralised social network. Will they also create new opportunities for global citizenship and alternatives … Continue reading →

Thursday, 25 October 2018 · Leave a comment

Poverty reduction 1990-2013: Did MDGs adoption and state capacity matter?

While poverty reduction remains central in the Post-2015 Agenda, its determinants remain debated in the literature, especially the role of structural conditions related to governance. This paper provides an assessment … Continue reading →

Sunday, 14 October 2018 · Leave a comment

Digital Lives: Meaningful Connections for the Next 3 Billion

This report is guided by two central truths. One: digital technologies are rapidly revolutionising many aspects of life as we know it. Two: not everyone benefits from access and effective … Continue reading →

Saturday, 6 October 2018 · Leave a comment

Cities Alive: Water for People

Cities Alive: Water for People presents an economic pathway of addressing the challenges of population growth and climate change in our cities.  To move towards a more sustainable future, it is … Continue reading →

Thursday, 27 September 2018 · Leave a comment

Mapping Society (UCL free book)

From a rare map of yellow fever in eighteenth-century New York, to Charles Booth’s famous maps of poverty in nineteenth-century London, an Italian racial zoning map of early twentieth century … Continue reading →

Monday, 24 September 2018 · Leave a comment