UIC Urban Forum

Save the date! December 5, 2013 at the UIC Forum

People and institutions engage in the public square and the private marketplaces for the purpose of promoting commerce and growth, improving the quality of life in neighborhoods and cities, and creating institutions to promote democratic governance. These interactions are constrained and shaped by the rapidly emerging technologies and access to those technologies by individuals and institutions. Today, the capacities of institutions, communities and societies to govern collectively and ensure a sustainable and acceptable quality of life for metropolitan regions are challenged. The shape and direction of metropolitan growth and development depends on access to appropriate technology, scaled to the metropolitan region, and informed by the individual, household and community needs of the city and region.

The 2013 UIC Urban Forum will debate the role of technology as a critical element in enhancing the capacity of public institutions to adjust and adapt to metropolitan regions' emerging economic, political and social conditions. The Forum will bring together public intellectuals, stakeholders, academicians, policy analysts and citizens to examine both the enhancing and the constraining effects of technology on the capacity of local and regional governments to meet their health-care responsibilities, workforce-training and education needs, demands for promoting economic development and opportunities, and service-delivery responsibilities to their citizens.