Worldwide, the pace of urbanization is accelerating. Cities remain a hub, for talent to amass and collide. In China, India, Africa, and Latin America, urban populations are exploding and cities growing exponentially. For the first time in the history of humanity, more than half of the earth’s population will live in an urban area. This year, for the first time, more of the earth’s population will live in cities than in rural areas—some 3.2 billion, according to United Nations estimates. At the same time, many developed cities are shrinking and being radically restructured as a result of shifting economic bases and new patterns of migration.

PODER focuses on urban sustainability and the debate on how the city is studied, planned and managed within this rapidly changing context in order to best understand the after-effects of this urban shift.