We are now very much an urban species. By 2050 three-quarters of the global population are expected to live in cities and globally we will be building the equivalent of a new city the size of Birmingham every week for the next 30 years. Such rapid urbanisation brings challenges, not just to the physical environment but also to quality of life and people’s subjective feelings of wellbeing, happiness and life satisfaction. As we learn more about people’s experiences of living in cities and urban spaces, how can we use this information to make cities around the world happier and more liveable?
Rachel Cooper OBE (Chair) is Professor of Design Management and Policy at the University of Lancaster and Director of Imagination Lancaster.
Jeremy Bentham Vice President Global Business Environment, Royal Dutch Shell and Head of the Shell Scenarios team which has recently published a special Future Cities supplement in collaboration with the Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore.
Dr George MacKerron lectures in environmental and behavioural economics at the University of Sussex, with affiliations to UCL and LSE. His research covers topics including subjective wellbeing, environmental quality, spatial analysis and crowdsourcing.
Leo Hollis, writer, historian, urbanist
He is the author of two books on the history of London: The Phoenix: The Men Who Made Modern London and The Stones of London: A History Through Twelve Buildings. He writes regularly for the New Statesman, the Times Literary Supplement and the Daily Telegraph.
'Escape to the city' audience Q&A