Michael Cohen

NewSchool of Architecture & Design · International Affairs

This chapter focuses on the power of ideas and how the adoption of certain ideas and theories serves as the substantive basis for policies. Ideas affect urban behavior. By themselves they do not “kill” urban areas, but their impacts in many forms and processes contribute to the worsening of urban conditions. The chapter cites the impacts of theorie...

Our planet is rapidly urbanizing. Research has recognized the complexity of city-driven dynamics, but our political realities have yet to catch up. A new narrative of sustainable urban development must become central to global policymaking to help humanity respond to the most pressing social and environmental challenges.

This article seeks to explain why some popular neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires have responded more effectively than others to COVID-19. It compares actions that took place between March and October 2020 in the neighbourhoods of Villa 20, Villa 15 and Villa 1-11-14. We analyse public policies carried out by government agencies, especially the Institu...

Kazakhstan has an ambitious transformation agenda for 2050 that intends to link diversified and green economic growth with urbanization. The country plans to quadruple its GDP, substantially increase its non-oil revenues, halve its energy consumption, and increase its urbanization from 56 per cent to 70 per cent. In line with these national goals,...

This book evaluates the impact of 20 years of urban policies in six Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico. It argues that evaluating the fulfillment of past commitments is essential for framing and meeting the new commitments that were taken in Habitat III over the next 20 years. Taken as a whole, the boo...

This book presents effective urban resilience practices put in place in six Latin American cities: Manizales, Colombia; La Paz, Bolivia; Cuenca, Ecuador; Santa Fe and Pilar, Argentina; and Cubatão, Brazil.

Global urbanization promises better services, stronger economies, and more connections; it also carries risks and unforeseeable consequences. To deepen our understanding of this complex process and its importance for global sustainability, we need to build interdisciplinary knowledge around a systems approach. Urban Planet takes an integrative look...

Global urbanization promises better services, stronger economies, and more connections; it also carries risks and unforeseeable consequences. To deepen our understanding of this complex process and its importance for global sustainability, we need to build interdisciplinary knowledge around a systems approach. Urban Planet takes an integrative look...

The Habitat Commitment Index (HCI) 2.0 is the result of an applied research project undertaken by the Global Urban Futures Project of The New School with the support of the Ford Foundation. It builds upon analytic work presented at the Habitat III Conference in October 2016 that measured the fulfillment of commitments made by national governments a...

En el presente estudio se realizó un Análisis Costo-Beneficio (ACB) de la Ecozona para modelar los resultados del programa en tres diferentes escenarios de implementación. Para llevar a cabo este estudio se integró un equipo consultor liderado por el Dr. Michael Cohen, director del Observatorio Latinoamericano de la New School de Nueva York, y comp...

The Habitat Commitment Index (HCI) is a product of the Global Urban Futures Project (GUFP), a learning network of scholars and activists who are changing the conversation about urban policy. The GUFP highlights the major challenges facing cities around the world—rising inequality, uneven growth, and climate change.

Preparations for the upcoming United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito in October 2016 have included a wide range of meetings and work on a negotiated outcome document entitled “The New Urban Agenda”. This is intended to present a global consensus on the significance and challenges of human settl...

The scale and pace of urbanization in the economic and social transformations of developing countries continue to be among the most overlooked phenomena of the twenty-first century. Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7, Target 11 focuses on improving the living conditions of 100 million slum dwellers-about 5% of projected urban growth in developing...

International aid to cities over the past 40 years has been based largely on a simple, demographically driven model of demand for and supply of housing and urban infrastructure services. The demographic projections have been generated by the United Nations Population Division, country demographic and statistical offices, housing and public works mi...

This paper explores the contradictions between the ambition to establish a more effective framework for the development and management of cities, and some of the realities of urban life. It discusses this through the lens of the World Bank's evolving urban assistance programme during the 1980s and 1990s as it shifted from urban projects to strength...

The Second United Nations' Conference on Human Settlements, Habitat II, convened in Istanbul, Turkey from June 3 to 14, 1996. The Conference capped a three-year process of preparation that involved all of the world's governments and hundreds of non-governmental institutions, organizations, and individuals. Both the preparatory process and the Confe...

Discusses the housing problems emerging from mobility patterns in developing countries, proposing a new paradigm for urban shelter. Special emphasis is placed, on integrated urban shelter programmes, including training of qualified technical personnel, promotion and development of the construction and building materials industry, community particip...

Between 1975 and the year 2000 the cities of the developing countries will be expected to absorb 70% of the projected population increases — 1.3 billion people — most of them poor. By any measures this is a gargantuan task. This paper examines the causes for the unprecedented growth of urban areas, the magnitude of this growth, and where it is occu...