Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 3:30pm - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - 5:30pm

Soon more than 550 cities world wide will have a population of more than one million. In 2030 eighty percent of the world's population will live in cities. Megacities have traditionally been economic and political power centers but today the fastest growing cities are in developing nations.

The new challenge is that cities are growing helter skelter rather than planned. There is an acute need for new models of city planning to prevent collapses under such huge social, economic and environmental pressure. If cities are to remain livable, the problems of population increase must be understood and dealt with. "Cities on Speed" shows how four different megacities are dealing with this challenge. What are the visions and the solutions and how do they affect the inhabitants?

Join CLAS, COSAS, SALAC, CMES, HRP and CIS for a weekly screening of one of the Cities on Speed documentary films produced by Danish Radio.  Each 1hr screening will be followed by a moderated discussion.

Tuesdays in February
3:30-5:30PM
Foster Hall, Room 103

February 7: Shanghai - "Space"
Discussant: Jin Yan, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago
"Shanghai is not just a city - it's an explosion of 4,000 skyscrapers, thousands of miles of highway, millions of citizens and thousands of government planners. Vast communities need to be expropriated to make way for new skyscrapers, roads, and industries. The government tries to control it, the citizens try to use it, but Shanghai is beyond control."

February 14: Cairo - "Garbage"
Discussant: Noha Forster, Lecturer of Arabic, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
"Previously only 12 million people lived in Cairo and the city was neat and tidy. Today Cairo has a population estimated at 20 million with six giant Garbage Villages that have evolved into towns within the city. Nobody can keep up with the speed at which the city is growing and their garbage piles up in the streets."

February 21: Mumbai - "Traffic"
Discussant: Sanjeev Vidyarthi, Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Planning & Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago
"Urban planning can be tough in the world's largest democracy! Mumbai is growing like it was on steroids and a collapsing infrastructure could put an end to economic growth. Public trains are filled to the bursting point, traffic is nearing a complete gridlock. An eight lane high-way is being built out in the sea to try to compensate for the threatening collapse."

February 28: Bogota - "Improving Civic Behavior"
Discussant: Paola Castaño, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago
"In the early 90s, Bogotá was a city with big problems: Social inequality, pollution, out-of-control population growth and poor public transportation. Kidnappings were the order of the day and the city had the world's highest homicide rates. But unlike other poor megacities, Bogotá found a solution: In 1993, Antanas Mockus, a university president, became mayor and turned the city into one big social experiment. Under his leadership community watch groups were formed, homicides fell 70%, traffic fatalities dropped by over 50%, and many citizens voluntarily paid an extra 10% of taxes!"