Ideas change everything

The biggest risks facing cities -- and some solutions

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Robert Muggah |

TEDGlobal>NYC

• September 2017

With fantastic new maps that show interactive, visual representations of urban fragility, Robert Muggah articulates an ancient but resurging idea: cities shouldn't just be the center of economics -- they should also be the foundation of our political lives. Looking around the world, from Syria to Singapore to Seoul and beyond, Muggah submits six principles for how we can build more resilient cities. "Cities are where the future happens first. They're open, creative, dynamic, democratic, cosmopolitan, sexy," Muggah says. "They're the perfect antidote to reactionary nationalism."

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

With fantastic new maps that show interactive, visual representations of urban fragility, Robert Muggah articulates an ancient but resurging idea: cities shouldn't just be the center of economics -- they should also be the foundation of our political lives. Looking around the world, from Syria to Singapore to Seoul and beyond, Muggah submits six principles for how we can build more resilient cities. "Cities are where the future happens first. They're open, creative, dynamic, democratic, cosmopolitan, sexy," Muggah says. "They're the perfect antidote to reactionary nationalism."

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.

Reach out to an inter-city movement and take action. Great examples include the Global Parliament of Mayors, the C40, United Cities and Local Government (UCLG), Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), the US Conference of Mayors and Eurocities.

Share data on cities so that citizens are better informed. Reach out to the CREATE Lab or the Igarapé Institute and they might be able to visualize your datasets.

Explore the Earth Timeline platform, a collaboration between the Igarapé Institute and Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab that tracks climactic and human-induced risks — from refugee flows, terrorism and other risks — on a planetary scale over the past three decades.

About the speaker

Megacities expert

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Robert Muggah creates tools to understand cycles of violence in urban environments and opens dialogues on ways to confront them globally.

Learn more

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.

Reach out to an inter-city movement and take action. Great examples include the Global Parliament of Mayors, the C40, United Cities and Local Government (UCLG), Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), the US Conference of Mayors and Eurocities.

Share data on cities so that citizens are better informed. Reach out to the CREATE Lab or the Igarapé Institute and they might be able to visualize your datasets.

Explore the Earth Timeline platform, a collaboration between the Igarapé Institute and Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab that tracks climactic and human-induced risks — from refugee flows, terrorism and other risks — on a planetary scale over the past three decades.

Robert Muggah: The biggest risks facing cities -- and some solutions | TED Talk