Cities are home to more than half of the world's population, and are the primary incubators of the cultural, social and political innovations that shape our planet. Benjamin Barber, author of the upcoming book If Mayors Ruled the World, proposes that cities represent a new paradigm of global governance - that democracy began in cities and works best in cities, and that networked cities working across borders can and already do solve global problems of climate change, immigration, security and transportation.
Barber is author of Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age and Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World. He is Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society of The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Following Mr. Barber's presentation he is joined on stage by New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr.