Magical Urbanism, a website about urbanization, design and social change, is maintained by Mike Ernst. I'm an urban planner and designer based in New York City. I graduated from the IHP Cities in the 21st Century
This is a shameless plug for the study abroad program I did as an undergraduate. In 2002, as part of the International Honors Program’s Cities in the 21st Century, I traveled with 30 other students and 3 faculty members to India, South Africa and Brazil study interdisciplinary approaches to urbanization in the developing world. Over the course of four months, we met with scores of activists, teachers, politicians, and everyday people who shared their experiences and stories about how cities are changing today.
In India, our tour was organized by the Environmental Support Group, headed by the venerable Leo Saldanha and Bhargavi Rao. We spent a good deal of time in Bangalore, the rising IT capital of India. We met with the heads of Wipro and Sasken, two leading IT companies based in Bangalore and discussed their corporate visions, human resource practices, community work programs and marketing strategies. In stark contrast, we also toured the Lakshman Rao Nagar slum, a stark opposite of the new wealth of the technology campuses.
After only a few quick weeks, we took off for South Africa, spending most of our time in Cape Town. It was here that the program perhaps had the most profound impact on me. Seeing the stark contrasts between rich and poor, neatly divided along racial lines, paralleled all too closely with the racial situation here the United States. I chose to return to South Africa later that year, and completed my senior thesis on urban development in post-apartheid Cape Town.
Brazil was quite amazing, though by that time some of the academic rigor of the program had worn off. Rio is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and fun cities in the world, though it is still incredibly poor. Curitiba is great, and of significant interest to any aspiring city planner. Bill McKibben provides a pretty good summary of why it’s a nice place for planners and environmentalists. I personally found it to be a little too boring (it felt like a smartly-planned version of Indiana), but I suppose sustainability isn’t really that sexy.
IHP offers several other programs in addition to the semester-long “Cities,” including a new one focusing on public health. All of their programs are interdisciplinary, addressing globalization, economics, and environmental sustainability. For any college student interested in seeing the challenges and opportunities on urban development, I highly recommend the International Honors Program.
