Controversies about "slum tourism": In India, Kenya, Brazil, and elsewhere, touring slum cities (which in Brazil are called "favelas") has become popular. Since the success of Slumdog Millionnaire, many more people are aware of slum cities. Does tourism increase our awareness, or treat the people who live there as spectacles?
Debates over Richard Florida's Creative Class theses: Florida is a sociologist who claims that diverse, tolerant cities encourage productivity, economic growth, and creativity.
Here is a 12 minute interview with Richard Florida where he nicely summarizes his work; it is not possible to embed the vidoe directly into my site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6LyyjzYuFU
Note also that Florida has hour long lectures on his texts also available on YouTube as part of the google authors series.
Example of a real project that aims at addressing diversity and conflict in a city--the city of Jerusalem: “Jerusalem 2050 is a uniquely visionary and problem-solving project, jointly sponsored by MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and the Center for International Studies with the participation of Palestinian and Israeli scholars, activists, business leaders, youth and others. It seeks to understand what it would take to make Jerusalem, a city also known as Al Quds, claimed by two nations and central to three religions, “merely” a city, a place of difference and diversity in which contending ideas and diverse citizenries can co-exist in benign, yet creative, ways.”
copyright 2007-2021 Sharon M. Meagher, Ph.D. Every effort is made to keep all links and resources up-to-date. Please send corrections or suggestionsto me. Thank you.