On this week’s podcast, we’re joined by arguably the biggest political theorist writing about cities today.
In 2013, Benjamin Barber published If Mayors Ruled the World, a book in which he argued that nation states are increasingly powerless to deal with the challenges of the 21st century (climate change, migration, terrorism, and so forth). Instead, Barber suggests we should be looking to cities as the building blocks of the global government of the future.
I was lucky enough to grab a few minutes with Barber after an event organised by the Centre for Cities last week. He told me more about his theories, and how he’s putting them into practice by creating the Global Parliament of Mayors, which will hold its first meeting this September.
Some helpful links from the archive about Barber and his theories:
- Should mayors rule the world?
- Can cities save the world? Benjamin Barber, Edward Glaeser and others say they can
- 11 things we learned from Benjamin Barber’s talk on the future of the city
But, with apologies to the 60 per cent of our readers who aren’t based in these islands, but there’s really only one topic any of us can focus on right now: the gradual collapse of our government, opposition, economy, global status, and very possibly the United Kingdom itself.
So that is what we’re starting with this week. Barbara and I are joined by our colleague Stephanie Boland to talk about the Brexit vote, and debate why some cities turned out to be so much more pro-European than others.
Here, since you’re lovely, are a couple of links on that topic, too:
- Brexit: What’s the most pro-European city in Britain?
- The more educated a city’s population, the less likely it was to vote Leave
- “Nobody knows anything”: A brief guide to how Brexit could affect Britain’s cities
The episode itself is below. You can subscribe to the podcast on Acast, iTunes, or RSS. While we’re at it, we’re still in the market for nice iTunes reviews, so, y’know, you should definitely feel free.
