As cities struggle with the combined pressures of a killer disease and economic stress, the impacts of urban form on well-being, inequality and resilience are brought into even sharper focus. Using research from LSE’s global Urban Age programme – including new research on Athens - the illustrated lecture reviews how urban planning, governance and design are critical to shaping urban lives in the 21st century.

Meet our speakers and chair

Ricky Burdett (@BURDETTR) is Professor of Urban Studies at LSE and Director of LSE Cities, a global centre of research and teaching at LSE which received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education 2016-18. At LSE he teaches in the Executive MSc in Cities and other courses and co-directs the Urban Age programme.

Kostas Bakoyannis is Mayor of Athens. He served as Governor of Central Greece from 2014 to 2019 and as Mayor of Karpenissi, from 2011 to 2014. Βorn in 1978 in Athens, he graduated from Millfield School (UK)  in 1996 before going to Brown University (USA) to study History and International Relations. He continued with postgraduate studies in Public Policy, with a specialization in Macroeconomics, at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (USA). He holds a Ph.D.  in Political Science and International Relations, from the University of Oxford (2019). He has worked at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as executive manager in the private sector in Athens. He has also held positions in the European Parliament in Brussels and the World Bank in Kosovo. He is a council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and a Greek Leadership Council member of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). 

Lila Leontidou is Professor Emerita of Geography and European Culture at the Hellenic Open University (ΕΑΠ). She has been elected at different times a Senior Lecturer and a Professor in four Greek Universities and a British one (Kings College London), from which she returned to Greece in 1996, in order to lead the establishment of the very first degree-course of Geography in the country, at the University of the Aegean. Her last professorship was at the EAΠ since 2001, where she has been twice the Dean of the School of Humanities. She has published 250 books and papers in Greek, English, French, and her work has been translated into Spanish, Italian, German and Japanese.

George Petrakos is an economist and a Professor at the Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly. His research interests include urban and regional economics, development, structural change, integration and regional policy. He has served a 4-years term as the Rector of the University of Thessaly. He has served the Government of Greece for 2.5 years as the Secretary General for Investment and Development in the Ministry of Economy and Development with responsibility for key aspects of the development policy of Greece, while in the same period he served as the President of the JESSICA and JEREMIE Investment Funds. In addition, he has served as the Vice-President of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) (2007-11) and as a member of the Council of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) (2008-11).

Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor in Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor in European Politics in the European Institute at LSE, where he is also Director of the Hellenic Observatory. 

More about this event

The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute.

This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series of debates about the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis. The event is also part of the Hellenic Observatory Athens Lecture Series, co-organised with the National Bank of Greece and supported by the LSE Hellenic Alumni Association and part of the LSE Athens Urban Age Task Force organised by LSE Cities and the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft.

The National Bank of Greece (@NationalBankGR), backed by its 179-year participation in the country's economic and social life, is one of the leading Greek financial organisations, with strong tradition and noteworthy contribution to the economic and social transformation of Greece. The Bank’s broad customer base, respected brand name, strong market share in deposits and enhanced capital adequacy ratios secure it with the liquidity needed to finance Greek businesses and reflect the long-standing relationship of trust it enjoys with its clientele.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSECOVID19

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from Shaping Cities in an Urban Age

A video of this event is available to watch at Shaping Cities in an Urban Age

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.