The substantive focus of this conference is “Uncertainty and Cities in 2026: Tariffs, Climate Change, and Politics” and will include perspectives from different international, national, and local institutions on the global economy and cities, and particularly the impact of the tariffs on urban economies and local governments in both the Global South and Industrialized Economies, the challenges of climate change, and the new politics of urban uncertainty and precarity. The economics and politics of 2025-2026 have forcefully demonstrated the dependence of cities on global and national macro-economic forces.

Background research on this subject has been developed by a team of faculty and doctoral students at The New School University in New York and has benefitted from discussions with members of URBS.TIC, United Nations Habitat, the Lincoln Institute on Land Policy, The Japan International Cooperation Agency, and scholars from around the world.

April 13, 2026: 66 W. 12th Street, Room A404, The New School

10:00 am: Welcome

Joel Towers, President of The New School

Anaclaudia Rossbach, Executive Director of UN Habitat, and Undersecretary-General of the United Nations (Video Remarks)

Fernando Carrión Mena, Director, URBS.TIC, Former Director of City Planning, City of Quito, Ecuador, and Professor at FLACSO

Michael Cohen, Director of the Doctoral Program in Public and Urban Policy and Co-Director, Observatory on Latin America, The New School

10:40 am - 12:30 pm Session I: The New Economic Uncertainty: Tariffs and The Urban Economy

Moderator: Alexander Aleinikoff, Executive Dean, New School for Social Research

Lecture: Ana Swanson, The New York Times

Discussants:

William Milberg, Professor of Economics, The New School

Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Professor of International Affairs, The New School

12:30 - 2:00 pm: Lunch Break

2:00 pm - 3:15 pm Session II: Climate Change and the New Roles of Cities

Moderator: Lara Penin, Vice President for Urban Initiatives, The New School

Lecture: Aratrika Debnath, The New School

Discussant: Belen Perez Perez, University of Granada

3:15 pm - 3:45 pm: Coffee Break

3:45 pm - 5:00 pm Session III: Understanding Local Impacts: Finance, Land, and Housing

Moderator: Mario Sebastian Rodriguez, URBS.TIC and FLACSO, Ecuador

Presenters:

Eunice Offei, The New School

Charli Goodlet, The New School

Discussants: 

Enrique Silva, Chief Program Officer, Lincoln Institute for Land Policy

Mercedes di Virgilio, Professor of Urban Studies, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Session IV: The Politics of Precarity

Lecture: Fernando Carrion Mena, Director, URBS.TIC, Former Director of City Planning, City of Quito, Ecuador, and Professor at FLACSO

Discussant: David Wallace-Wells, Columnist, New York Times 

 
April 14, 2026: 66 W. 12th, Room A407, The New School

10:00 am - 12:00 pm Session V: Identifying A New Agenda for Urban Policy

Moderator: Margarita Gutman, Co-Director, Observatory on Latin America, Professor Emerita, The New School 

Video Lecture: Ian Klaus, Director, Carnegie Institution for International Peace, Palo Alto, California, Former US Lead Negotiator, UN Habitat III, 2016                           

Discussants:

Patricia Ramírez Kuri, President, Instituto de Planeacion Democratica y Prospectiva, Mexico City, and Professor of Sociology, UNAM

Marcelo Corti, Editor of Café de Ciudades and Director of Master´s Program in Urbanism, FAUD-UNC, Córdoba, Argentina

12:00 pm - 1:15 pm Session VI: Identifying A New Agenda for Urban Research

Moderator: Luís Herrera-Favela, Program Management Officer, Human Settlements from the UN-Habitat Canada Office

Discussants:

Mariana Alegre, Loeb Fellow, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, and Director, Como Vamos, Lima, Peru

Jesús M. González-Pérez, Professor of Geography, Director of the Chair of Urban Studies, University of the Balearic Islands (UIB)

1:15 pm - 1:30 pm Session VII: Summary and Closing

Moderator: Emilia Nicole Silva Arias, URBS.TIC and FLACSO Ecuador

Speakers:

Fernando Carrión Mena, Director, URBS.TIC, Former Director of City Planning, City of Quito, Ecuador, and Professor at FLACSO

Michael Cohen, Director of the Doctoral Program in Public and Urban Policy and Co-Director, Observatory on Latin America, The New School

This event is part of the New School for Social Research Festival of Ideas. Learn more HERE.