IGLUS Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1 – Tackling Urban Challenges: Who should take the Lead?

You are about to read the 1st issue of the IGLUS Quarterly. IGLUS Quarterly is dedicated to the analysis of Governance, Innovation and Performance in Cities. IGLUS Quarterly is an online quarterly publication aimed at knowledge and experience sharing among scholars and practitioners who are interested in improving the performance of cities, in terms of quality of services, sustainability, resilience and livability.

IGLUS Quarterly’s mission is to provide a medium for the analysis of policies and practices related to the performance of cities. IGLUS Quarterly is neither a news bulletin nor a purely academic journal; rather, it is aimed at bridging the ‘gap’ between practitioners and scholars. To achieve this goal, we have adopted a multidisciplinary perspective, encompassing in particular political, economic, social and technological dimensions which all shape the urban systems. We focus in particular on how governance affects and is affected by the introduction of new technologies, especially the information and communication technologies (ICTs). More broadly, we pay particular attention to innovations in urban systems.

The main input comes from our executive education program on Innovative Governance of Large Urban Systems (IGLUS), which has started its activities as of June 2014. IGLUS takes places in seven cities in North America, Latin America, East Asia, Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East. In each location, we bring together practitioners, scholars, firms and international organizations (such as UN-Habitat and the World Bank) active in various urban infrastructure systems, notable transport, energy, housing, water and others more. From each of these seven training modules the most interesting and relevant contributions are written up as a piece for IGLUS Quarterly. In this way, IGLUS and IGLUS Quarterly empower a global dialogue among urban actors.

May we take this opportunity to invite interested scholars and practitioners, like yourself, to write a short analytical article of 4 to 6 pages for IGLUS Quarterly? IGLUS Quarterly is published at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. It is openly accessible at www.iglus.org. In addition, we also kindly invite you to visit the www. iglus.org platform which is aimed to serve as a hub to facilitate the dialogue and networking among scholars, practitioners, firms, NGOs, international organization and other stakeholders interested in shaping the future governance of large urban systems.

Download full pdf – IGLUS Quarterly – vol 1 – issue nr 1 – year 2015