What can cities do about climate change? How can they help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create more sustainable forms of collective life? How can they protect vulnerable people and places from the outbursts of extreme weather that are becoming evermore likely to arrive? And can they adapt to global warming without making the world even more unequal? Drawing on original research and his experience as Research Director of the federal government’s Rebuild By Design competition for rebuilding after Sandy, Klinenberg will examine innovative urban climate projects across the planet and offer surprising solutions for some of the most challenging problems of our time.

NYU Urban Seminar Series: Equity, Design, and Climate Change

Cities today are growing quickly. The UN projects that continuing population growth and urbanization will add 2.5 billion people to the world’s urban centers by 2050. Even as our cities expand, unprecedented climate events flood our urban spaces, redraw shorelines, and devastate infrastructure. In the face of these twinned challenges of rapid growth and climate change, how do we design our cities so that they are inclusive, and remain centers of economic growth and creative dynamism that integrate new arrivals, while at the same time becoming more resilient to climate change? How do we ensure that our design approaches promote equity in our cities, and address climate change impacts that are most often felt by the economically vulnerable populations and areas of our cities? How do we create a design process that is inclusive, represents the needs of different urban constituencies, and draws on the creativity of all residents as we address emergent climate shifts? The 2018 NYU Urban Seminar Series will include urban planners, designers, researchers, practitioners, and artists whose work explores the intersection of equity, design, and climate change.