Lecture and book presentation by C. M. Harris Tiddens, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Date: Friday, April 25, 7pm
Location: Technische Universität Berlin, Hauptgebäude, Room H0107 Straße des 17. Juni 153
More than half of humanity lives in cities. In order to remain liveable, they must always reveal their own weaknesses and renew and improve creativity. They can learn from each other and through a comparison to the level of their basic units of the districts. Harris Tiddens showes in his presentation on the example of Beijing, Cologne and Hamburg, how we can strengthen ownership of parts of the city and can help showing them more appreciation . Tiddens advertises in his book “Roots for the living city” for a comeback of the neighborhoods in order to better respond to the complex challenges cities facing today in this era of globalization and climate change. Tiddens explains how existing urban areas change so that they turn into decentralized thinking and creative organisms and in a kind of “co-competition” within an open network can learn from each other. Only when cities make this possible and accompany stimulating, they will be able to build and implement an effective “Sustainability care”. Only then will they be able to reduce their current vulnerabilities and increase their chances, vital for future generations to be livable and loveable. This new comparative approach at the neighborhood level allows the science for the first time to investigate the sustainability of cities based on the facts, verifiable in an international comparison . C. M. Harris Tiddens is an expert on living organizations. The sinologist worked as a financial correspondent and was a member of the senior management of a large German DAX company. Today he is a senior fellow for the “Oorganization of urban sustainability welfare” at the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. C. M. Harris Tiddens: Roots for the living city. How can we strengthen ownership of neighborhoods and why they deserve more appreciation, oekom publisher