What does it mean to be a caregiver in modern society? And how can urban policy and design support those who care for young children?

Lucy Jones' groundbreaking exploration of matrescence - the psychological, social and biological metamorphosis into parenthood, sheds light onto the seismic shift that takes place when people step into the role of caregiver. What could the benefits be if cities were designed to underpin this transformation and the crucial work of caregiving?

To discuss these questions, we will bring Lucy Jones and Dr Kate Laffan together in conversation to consider how the wellbeing of those tasked with raising the next generation is currently considered in urban policy and design and how it could be in the future.

Meet our speakers

Lucy Jones is an award-winning journalist and the author of four books including the bestselling Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild (a Times and Telegraph Book of the Year) and most recently the Women’s Prize long-listed Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood, a New Statesman Book of the Year. Her first book, Foxes Unearthed (2016), won the Society of Authors' Roger Deakin Award and was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. Her writing on ecology, health and science has been published by BBC Earth, The Sunday Times, GQ, Emergence Magazine and the New Statesman.

Dr Kate Laffan is an Assistant Professor of Behavioural Science in the Psychological and Behavioural Science Department (PBS) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a Visiting Fellow at the Geary Institute for Public Policy at University College Dublin. She has a PhD in social policy from the LSE. Her research interests lie at the intersection of subjective wellbeing research, behavioural and ecological economics and social psychology. Her work is focused on developing insights which can support individual and planetary wellbeing. She teaches on the MSc in Behavioural Science and the Executive MSc in Behavioural Science and co-leads the Wellbeing Specialism within PBS.

Meet our chair

Katie Beck is a Policy Fellow at LSE Cities where she co-leads the Urban95 Academy, an executive education programme for municipal leaders who want to improve their cities for young children and their caregivers. Before her work at the LSE, Katie was a broadcast journalist for BBC News.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #Urban95Academy

More about the event

LSE Cities (@LSECities) is an international centre that investigates the complexities of the contemporary city. It carries out research, graduate and executive education, engagement and advisory activities in London and abroad.