City Futures II – EURA

City Futures II

City Futures II Madrid, Spain
4-6 June 2009


Final Report City Futures II – Globalising World

The second City Futures Conference, held in Madrid in 2009, built on the experience of the City Futures I Conference held in Chicago in 2004. Organised by EURA and the UAA the conference aimed to lift the quality of international dialogue relating to urban issues by:

  • Creating a whole conference sharply focussed on international exchange
  • Engaging different disciplinary perspectives and approaches
  • Welcoming papers that addressed policy concerns – local, regional and international – that focussed on the impact of policy on the ground.



The City Futures II Conference was attended by over 470 participants from 50 countries and over 300 papers were presented. The conference was organised around five tracks:

  • Sustainable cities and regions, climate change, resource use, and adaptation
  • Knowledge and technology and urban development
  • Community development, migration and integration in urban areas
  • Urban governance and city planning in an international era
  • Architecture, design and planning of the public realm



Two plenary sessions provided opportunities for speakers from the world of ‘policy’ and world of ‘academe’ to offer their insights on City Futures. The keynote speakers were:

City Futures in a Globalising World – Perspectives from the world of ‘policy’

  • Ignazio Nino Perez, President of the District of Retiro, Local Council of the City of Madrid
  • Natalija Kazlauskiene, Director of Regio C, Policy Development, European Commission
  • Margery Austin Turner, Vice-President for Research at the Urban Institute, Washington, DC

City Futures in a Globalising World – Perspectives from the world of ‘academe’

  • Professor Paul Kantor, Fordham University, New York City
  • Professor Sergio Zemeno Garcia-Granados, Social Research Institute, National Autonomous University of Mexico
  • Professor Cynthia Ghorra-Gobin, Institute of Political Studies, Paris