Constructs of Place: What makes cities tick?

What shapes a city’s identity? Who defines it? Is New York about individualism or community? Is Jerusalem about religion, conflict or cafés? This session looks at cities as diverse as these, plus Hong Kong, Berlin and Tel Aviv – at their DNA, and how it changes through migration, politics and globalisation.

Avner De-Shalit is Professor of Democracy and Human Rights and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the co-author of The Spirit of Cities: Why the Identity of a City Matters in a Global Age with Daniel A. Bell.

Barbara E Mann is Associate Professor of Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York. She is the author of A Place in History: Modernism, Tel Aviv, and the Creation of Jewish Urban Space.

Ziona Strelitz, Social Anthropologist, Town Planner and Design Researcher, is Founder Director of ZZA Responsive User Environments and the author of Buildings That Feel Good.and Energy, People, Place (2012).