Humanity on the move: unlocking the transformative power of cities, Summary

Kraas, Frauke / Claus Leggewie / Peter Lemke / Ellen Matthies / Dirk Messner / Nebojsa Nakicenovic / Hans Joachim Schellnhuber / Sabine Schlacke / Uwe Schneidewind / unter Mitarbeit von Clara Brandi, Anna Schwachula et al.
Books (2016)

Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen (WBGU)

ISBN: 978-3-936191-45-5
Volltext/Document

The momentum of urbanization and its impacts are so massive that we must face up to this trend. In view of the existing cognitive, technical, economic and institutional path dependencies, a policy of business as usual – i.e. an unstructured, quasi-automatic urbanization – would lead to a non-sustainable ‘world cities society’. Only if cities and urban societies are sufficiently empowered can they make use of the opportunities for sustainability and successfully follow the urban transformation pathways. The success or failure of the Great Transformation will be decided in the cities. The WBGU discusses the relevant conditions for the success of this transformation in this report.

About the authors

Brandi, Clara

Economy and Political Science

Brandi

Messner, Dirk

Political Scientist

Messner

Schwachula, Anna

Sociology

Schwachula

Further experts

Aleksandrova, Mariya

Climate risk governance 

Dippel, Beatrice

Comparatist 

Donnelly, Aiveen

Politcal Science 

Ekoh, Susan S.

Environmental Research 

Gitt, Florian

Economics 

Goedeking, Nicholas

Comparative Political Economy 

Haug, Sebastian

Political Science 

Hägele, Ramona

Political Scientist 

Inacio da Cunha, Marcelo

Economics, Geography 

Kachelmann, Matthias

Political Science 

Lehmann, Ina

Political Science 

Li, Hangwei

Political Science 

Malerba, Daniele

Economy 

Mathis, Okka Lou

Political Scientist 

Morare, Ditebogo Modiegi

Political Science 

Never, Babette

Political Scientist 

Novoselova, Anna

Political Science 

Nowack, Daniel

Political Science 

Olekseyuk, Zoryana

Economy 

Pegels, Anna

Economist 

Srigiri, Srinivasa Reddy

Agricultural Economist 

Stewart, Benjamin

Social Science 

Volz, Ulrich

Economist 

Wehrmann, Dorothea

Sociology 

Wingens, Christopher

Political Science