The Rise of the Platform Economy
Platforms and the cloud, an essential part of what has been called the “third globalization,” reconfigure globalization itself. These digital platforms are diverse in function and structure. Together they are … Continue reading
Ten Frontier Technologies for International Development
As new technologies and digital business models reshape economies and disrupt incumbencies, interest has surged in the potential of novel frontier technologies to also contribute to positive changes in international … Continue reading
Can We Build Cities That Think Like A Planet?
Developing measures of network resilience is one job of network theory. It’s a particularly pressing issue for understanding cities and their role in the Anthropocene. As the multiply overlapping networks … Continue reading
Smart Cities Aren’t About Technology
In all the talk of smart cities, we tend to get lost in the jargon of how sensors, algorithms, and data analytics promise to reshape our cities into orderly, efficient machines. … Continue reading
Dynamic Cities? The Role of Urban Local Governments in Improving Urban Service Delivery
Cities are engines of economic growth that provide spaces for social transformation and political inclusion. Their ability to deliver widely accessible and efficiently functioning public services drives productivity and sustains … Continue reading
The New Urban Agenda and its 47 inclusions
Inclusion can be a powerful term, particularly when applied to cities and urbanisation. It focuses attention on the means through which exclusion and inequality are produced and reproduced, and on … Continue reading
Boost resilience of small and mid-sized cities
Smaller settlements are growing faster than megacities — and they need more protection from extreme events. In our view, the central focus of Habitat III should be on small and … Continue reading
The Rise of Progressive Cities in Asia
Michael Douglass – With Asia expected to add more than a billion people to its urban population by mid-century, attention is turning toward cities as spheres of governance for meeting … Continue reading
Outsourcing development
Outsourcing development: Lifting the veil on the World Bank Group’s lending through financial intermediaries – The investigation tackled only a small portion of the IFC’s extensive financial-sector portfolio. Yet the results … Continue reading
Reading Development 