Global Cities Institute
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The RMIT Global Cities Research Institute was a major research institute of RMIT University. It was formed in 2006 as one of the four flagship research bodies at the university crossing all the disciplines from the humanities and social sciences to applied science and engineering. It has 200 staff, affiliated with seven programs. # Global Climate Change
Research leader: Darryn McEvoy # Globalization and Culture
Research leaders: Formerly
Manfred Steger Manfred D. Steger (born 1961) is a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He was also Professor of Global Studies and Director of the Globalism Research Centre at RMIT University in Australia until 2013. Background Steger was born in Aus ...
and Chris Hudson # Community Sustainability
Research leaders: Supriya Singh and Yaso Nadarajah # Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures
Research leaders: Ralph Horne and John Fien # Human Security and Disasters
Research Leaders: John Handmer and Jeff Lewis # Urban Decision-Making and Complex Systems
Research Leader: Lin Padgham # Global Indigeneity and Reconciliation
Research Leader: Barry Judd The Institute's founding Director was Paul James (2006–2013).


Context

The research of the Global Cities Institute Cities begins with the proposition that cities are the crucible of contemporary human living. Cities are reframing the way in which people live on this planet. The research of the institute encompasses questions of globalization, cultural change and community sustainability, human security, and urban restructuring under pressure Over the last decade, billions of dollars have been spent on development and security projects by both government and non-government agencies. Despite this investment, many communities continue to live under enormous pressure. Understanding this set of problems is central to the research agenda of the Global Cities Institute. It has implications for basic questions of sustainability. For the Global Cities Institute, developing a thorough on-going research program entails going beyond identifying the immediate threats to cities and communities to explore pathways towards enhancing sustainability, security, resilience and adaptation. The Institute has partnerships with many other programs. The Institute is engaged with the City of Melbourne on a series of projects, including the Future Melbourne project. It has global collaborations with the
UN Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a princi ...
,
UN-HABITAT The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settleme ...
, Metropolis, and other institutes and centres across the world. Through the work of the Global Cities Institute, RMIT was named in 2008 as the first UN Habitat university in the Asia-Pacific region. From 2007 the Institute has hosted the
United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a princi ...
Cities Programme, the only International Secretariat of the United Nations in the Asia-Pacific region.


Approach

The Global Cities Institute uses an overall approach called Engaged theory which integrates the broad range of methods and tools that different researchers in the Institute draw upon across different disciplines. At the empirical level this approach begins with a tool box for social mapping, organised around four domains of the social: economics, ecology, politics and culture (see
Circles of Sustainability Circles of Sustainability is a method for understanding and assessing sustainability, and for project management directed towards socially sustainable outcomes. It is intended to handle 'seemingly intractable problems' such as outlined in ...
). At the most abstract level it engages in research into the way in which such social life is affected by slow changes in the nature of time, space and embodiment.


References

{{Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Global Cities Research Institute, RMIT