Stockholm 30 June 2015—Some 400 participants gathered in Stockholm from Monday for the third Future of Places Conference – the Public Space Urban Thinkers Campus. Representing more than 300 organizations from 76 countries – along with nearly 10.000 followers on Twitter – the attendees will participate in the Campus dubbed “Public Space in the New Urban Agenda” organized by the Future of Places and set to run from 29 June – 1 July 2015.

 The battle for sustainable development will be won or lost in cities 

In this lecture, Eugenie Birch draws heavily on history to illustrate the location, pace, trajectory, documentation and varied solutions of historic slum conditions in Western Europe and North America; tracking contemporary slum development in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and outlines the commonalities and differences with past experience. Birch places slum development in stages that correspond to the urbanization rates and peak growth of slums of the places in question, and discusses adaptations, their benefits and costs.