During a panel discussion at The Economist's World in 2012 festival, former U.S. Treasury secretary Robert Rubin, Morgan Stanley CFO Ruth Porat and Brookings Institute fellow Eswar Prasad agreed that 2012 would be the year that defines the path that the U.S., European Union and emerging economies for the next decade.

Urban planning in the 20th century sprang from that horrified perception of 19th-century cities. Oddly, it began with Ebenezer Howard. In a slim book, self-published in 1898, the man who spent his days transcribing the ideas of others articulated his own vision for how humanity ought to live-a vision so compelling that half a century later Lewis Mumford, the great American architecture critic, said it had "laid the foundation for a new cycle in urban civilization."

One placemaking premise is to avoid politics and pedantic debate (such as "new" v. "landscape" urbanism)-one of the tenets of the movement is efficiency, often without "starchitecture" or directed urban redevelopment. Rather, placemaking is frequently a low-cost, facilitated exercise which helps enhance people's faith in their cities and neighborhoods.

Ready or not, decision time is upon us. Many of these highways were built to last between 40 and 50 years - they'll soon need to be either repaired or reinvented. "What's going to happen in the next 10 years when we need to make a big investment to prevent them from collapsing like the one in Minneapolis?" asks John Renne, professor of urban studies at the University of New Orleans.

My recommendation to Bloomberg and other mayors would be to open the analytics to the public so that everyone has access and can contribute solutions. Perhaps a lesser concern, keeping this type of information private gives incumbents insider information when assessing what issues voters are most concerned about.

The Center for American Progress held a forum on economic growth and equality. After opening remarks from Vanessa Cárdenas and Angela Glover Blackwell, members of the first panel talked about the link between economic growth and equality. Economist Emmanuel Saez in his presentation used graphs to show the relationship between equitable distribution of wealth and economic growth.

Compass Blueprint offers a complete toolbox of planning services, trainings, videos, and a other resources to help planners, local governments, and citizen groups do their jobs more effectively.

LAANE is a leading advocacy organization dedicated to building a new economy for all. Combining dynamic research, innovative public policy and the organizing of broad alliances, LAANE promotes a new economic approach based on good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment.

LAANE is a leading advocacy organization dedicated to building a new economy for all. Combining dynamic research, innovative public policy and the organizing of broad alliances, LAANE promotes a new economic approach based on good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment.

Since the late 1980s, computer scientists and engineers have been researching ways of embedding computational intelligence into the built environment. Looking beyond the model of personal computing, which placed the computer in the foreground of our attention, "ubiquitous" computing takes into account the social dimension of human environments and allows computers themselves to vanish into the background

OUR PHILOSOPHY IS UNIQUE in the consulting industry. We were founded by Clayton Christensen, professor and author of the best-selling books The Innovator's Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution, but we are not a typical "guru" firm. We have developed a series of market-tested tools and techniques that enable growth through innovation, but we are not a "black box." We deliver compelling workshops and speeches, but we are not "trainers."

IAP2 has a wealth of resources available assist organizations, decision makers, policy makers and practitioners to improve the quality of the public participation work.  The following resources are protected by copyright by the International Association for Public Participation and may be used for information purposes.

This article is about power structures in society and how they interact. Specifically it is a guide to seeing who has power when important decisions are being made. It is quite old, but never-the-less of great value to anyone interested in issues of citizen participation. The concepts discussed in this article about 1960's America apply to any hierarchical society but are still mostly unknown, unacknowledged or ignored by many people around the world. Most distressing is that even people who have the job of representing citizens views seem largely unaware, or even dismissive of these principles. Many planners, architects, politicians, bosses, project leaders and power-holder still dress all variety of manipulations up as 'participation in the process', 'citizen consultation' and other shades of technobable.

Cities have a central role to play in tackling climate change. By fostering a sense of shared purpose, the C40 network offers cities an effective forum in which to work together, share information and demonstrate leadership.

The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40) is a network of large and engaged cities from around the world committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable climate-related actions locally that will help address climate change globally. Our organization's global field staff works with city governments, supported by our technical experts across a range of program areas.

Using everything from modern technologies like the web and social media to traditional grassroots communication we intend to reach people on a worldwide scale. We will ask everyone, at every level of society, to submit their visions for a positive future. From solutions addressing poverty and injustice to strategies for creating sustainable and environmentally responsible communities, we will gather ideas internationally. But we won't stop here.

The agenda is guided by a set of principles that must be agreed upon by stakeholders at all levels and does not seek to recreate the past and restore the jobs lost to global competition or to revive the debt-fueled follies of the past. It embraces a shift from a consumption-based economy to a production economy focused on global trade.

Information technology is revolutionizing the classroom and driving down the costs of producing first-rate educational materials. Many universities are putting their classes online for free, so that anyone in the world can learn physics, math, or economics from world-class faculty. At Stanford University this fall, two computer-science professors put their courses online for students anywhere in the world; now they have an enrollment of 58,000.

The same breakthroughs now possible in education can occur in health care. The US health-care system is notoriously expensive, partly because many of the key costs are controlled by the American Medical Association and private-sector health-insurance companies, which act like monopolists, driving up costs. Such monopoly pricing should be ended.

The idea is a simple one- that people who Do things can inspire the rest of us to go and Do things, too. So each year we invite a set of people down here to come and tell us what they Do. They can be small Do's or big Do's or just extraordinary Do's. But when you listen to their stories, they light a fire in your belly to go and Do your thing, your passion, the thing that sits in the back of your head each day, just waiting, and waiting for you to follow your heart.

We help build enthusiastic communities of future owners, tenants and customers for progressive, urban real estate developments targeting creatives committed to a triple bottom line vision. We use the modern market and product development system of crowdsourcing (ie Wikipedia, YouTube, Linux), applied to the authentic placemaking principles of natural cultural districts. For a more complete description of the program, check out our visual guide to crowdsourced placemaking and economic development, Crowdsourcing Cool Places for Creatives and peruse how our clients are taking advantage of crowdsourced placemaking in the examples prominently displayed on this site.