BSP Public Lecture: Urban Transformation and sustainable development: from Beijing to Manchester

Speaker: Professor Cecilia Wong, Manchester Urban Institute, The University of Manchester

The international policy community through Habitat III has turned to cities as the driver to end poverty, develop sustainable and inclusive urban economies and deliver environmental sustainability. However, there have been debates over the paradoxical relationship between urbanisation and sustainable development. This lecture aims to explore the role played by planning policies and redevelopment measures in delivering large scale urban transformation. More importantly, it asks in what ways have these large scale redevelopment projects altered neighbourhood dynamics and impacted on their trajectories of development. To shed light on the debate, the lecture will explore the recent spatial restructuring of Beijing’s peri-urban areas and the long-term brownfield redevelopment in Salford Quays of Greater Manchester.

Cecilia is Professor of Spatial Planning, Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences and Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She has research expertise in strategic spatial planning, policy monitoring and analysis, urban and regional development, and housing and infrastructure planning. She is a commissioner of the UK 2070 Commission on Regional Inequalities and was a commissioner of the Labour Party’s Lyons Independent Housing Review; a member of Department for Communities and Local Government’s expert panel on housing and planning; an expert panel member of the European Commission’s Urban Audit II; and an expert group member of the UN-Habitat City Prosperity Index.