New York City median income. Credit: Clio Andris

What is a city, and what makes Chicago so different from Los Angeles? In an SFI Community Lecture June 18 in Santa Fe, SFI Professor Luis Bettencourt peered inside the city, down to the data describing its neighborhoods and its people, for answers. 

Watch the lecture (June 18, 2014)

Bettencourt shows how a city is less a place than a fabric, woven from the threads of the individual lives interacting within it – it is, in fact, connections that define a city. He then suggests that, from a perspective of human development, the world’s slums can be thought of not necessarily as problems, but rather as gateways for millions of people transitioning from largely self-sufficient rural lives to highly connected urban lives.

Hear his interview on KSFR's Santa Fe Radio Cafe (June 18, 2014)

Hear his interview on KBAC's The Big Show (June 17, 2014)

SFI Community Lectures are broadcast live online. To watch a lecture as it happens, visit SFI's YouTube page. You can participate in the live Twitter discussion at #sfi_live or @sfi_live.

SFI’s 2014 Community Lectures are made possible through the generous support of Thornburg Investment Management.

For a complete listing of upcoming SFI community events, please check here.