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Forum on urban diversity |
Urban writers and commentators from around the world met at the World Expo to discuss urban diversity this weekend.
As part of UN-HABITAT week in the UN Pavilion at the World Expo, five speakers came together to share their experiences and opinions about urban diversity with a keen audience of Chinese Social Science students from Tonjing University, in Shanghai.
Vyjayanthi Rao of The New School for Social Research in New York moderated the session. The other speakers were Marcello Balbo, Professor of Urban Planning at the Università Iuav di Venezia, Richard Fung, Vvdeo artist and cultural critic at the Ontario College of Art and Design in, Toronto, Lesley Lokko, novelist and principal of Lokko Associates from Accra and Johannesburg and AbdouMaliq Simone from Goldsmiths College, London.
Introducing the session, Ms Rao tabled the view that we were living in “volatility and uncertainty”, be it financial or environmental and this was when the challenges of diversity would really come under pressure.
Mr Balbo, while expressing that diversity was usually seen as a good thing, could become negative and introduce problems and tensions within communities if not managed properly.
The debate sparked a lively discussion with the students who wanted to share their own experiences of urban life in China.
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