Some of the world’s top urbanists are gathered today at Rio de Janeiro’s City Transformations, the 12th Urban Age conference hosted by LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The 2-day event, organized with Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society in partnership with Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, will investigate the impact of large scale urban development projects on the social, economic, political and physical make-up of cities.

The exchange and debate amongst over 150 policy-makers, academics, urban designers, architects, and representatives of NGOs and local community groups began yesterday, but you can still catch the livestream of Day 2 from 12:00pm to 8:30pm today, 25 October BST (London). Read the online program here.

The conference will see keynotes from Eduarda la Rocque, President, Institute Pereira Passos, Secretary of Finance, City of Rio de Janeiro 2009 – 2012, Deyan Sudjic, Director, Design Museum London and Amanda Burden, Director, New York City Department of City Planning. Presentations include Celso Athayde, President, Favela Holding, Rio de Janeiro ‘Unlocking the economic potential of the favelas’; Alberto Gomes Silva, CEO, The Port Region Urban Development Company of Rio de Janeiro (CDURP) ‘Re-inhabiting the inner city, Porto Maravilha, Rio de Janeiro’, Dame Tessa Jowell, UK Minister for the Olympics 2005–2010, ‘Mega-Events: Drivers of Change?’ and Luiz Eduardo Soares, anthropologist, film-writer and commentator, ‘The politics of urban change in Brazil’.

In addition, LSE Cities have published a conference newspaper, City Transformations to coincide with the event, which you can download or read the articles here. The newspaper features essays from authors including Richard Sennett, David Harvey, Enrique Peñalosa and Deyan Sudjic, alongside an extensive data section, providing a range of data for twelve global cities including urban size and growth rates, inequality, murder rates, water consumption and CO2 emissions.

You can follow @LSECities on twitter or with the hashtag #UARio.

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