International Urban Fellows Association Conference 2009

The 39th IUFA conference took place from June 13 to June 17 2009 in Bologna. It was a success under many aspects.
The attendance of International fellows reached a record of 50, well beyond even precedent conferences held in Capital cities in Europe. The involvement of several local stakeholders in the various sessions of the conference enabled a fruitful debate on the stakes and the future of Bologna as an emblematic model city for other mid-size cities in the world. International keynote speakers contributed to enrich the debate on the future of mid-size cities in a comparative framework.
IUFA will now consider elaborating and eventually publishing the results of this discussion.
IUFA and IPS are grateful to the Organising Committee, to all participating fellows and to guest speakers who have contributed to the high level of discussion.
All presentations of IUFA 2009 can be downloaded in the conference presentations page.

Many mid-size cities all over Europe are striving to build their way into modernity.
Cities that have been the cradle of industrial development are planning the transition to a service economy, with special attention to building modern transportation and logistic services, innovation services for firms, and giving utmost importance to cultural assets within the city.

An example of such strategy is the city of Bologna, that with a population of 375.000 (over 900.000 in the metropolitan area) is investing heavily in a series of transportation and housing projects that are expected to enhance the role of the city as a service hub in central and northern Italy (International Herald Tribune, April 11 2008).

Can this be a model for other mid-size cities and for other metropolitan areas in Europe?

The 2009 conference of the alumni of the 40 year-old International Fellows in urban Studies program at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies will contribute to the definition of an urban strategy for mid-size cities in Italy and Europe. Their conclusions are expected to have implications for mid-sized U.S. cities as well.

The International Urban Fellows Association (IUFA) conference will discuss the role of mid size cities from several perspectives: the role of innovation and university in such transformation; architectural and housing implications of such transformation; the role of the municipality in "governing" such transformation; the role of strategic planning and governance schemes; the ways in which innovation may be applied to improving the quality and "greening" of life, and the role of metropolitan forms of government.

Documents and papers on the conference theme can be downloaded here: download.
Here you can reach the blog of the conference: conference blog. You can post comments and attach links to sites or documents that relate to the theme of mid-size cities.

Click on the links below to download the flyers of the conference:

wiew of Bologna