Richard Florida, senior editor at The Atlantic, posits 11 reasons the United Nations should make cities the focus of its sustainable development goals, mentioning SFI research among his evidence.
"Research by Luis Bettencourt and Jose Lobo of the Santa Fe Institute is finding that slum dwellers can be their own most powerful advocates and change-agents: slums are and can be transformed, their research suggests, if we arm their residents and neighborhoods with the right tools, listen to their insights, and build from and support them," Florida writes. "But this cannot be achieved on an ad hoc basis; a new UN goal for cities can help identify and establish best-practices informed by the process of what actually occurs in slums to guide poverty reduction and economic development."
Read the article in The Atlantic Cities (April 17, 2014)