News

Is Social Entrepreneurship the Key to Ending Poverty?

Mar 21, 2013
Social entrepreneurship blurs the boundaries between civil society, the state, and the market. The term embraces a range of activities, organizations, and individuals including non-governmental organizations, commercial enterprises, and entrepreneurs that has significant potential and hope for addressing global poverty. In this Context interview, Oxford University professor and author Paul Collier describes the latest innovations and alternative solutions to meeting international development goals and empowering the poor.

Call for Papers: Reducing Urban Poverty

Mar 15, 2013
The Woodrow Wilson Center’s Comparative Urban Studies Project, USAID, the International Housing Coalition, the World Bank, and Cities Alliance are teaming up a fourth time to co-sponsor an academic paper competition for graduate and PhD level students focused on challenges facing urban centers in the developing world.

As Urbanization Accelerates, Policymakers Face Integration Hurdles

Sep 07, 2012
The challenges for cities in the coming century will be many, but accounting for swelling numbers of new residents – due to more open avenues of communication and flows of goods, economic opportunity, population growth, and potential climate change-induced displacement – is perhaps the biggest.

Wilson Center Announces New Program on Global Sustainability & Resilience

Aug 17, 2012
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars today announced the creation of a new program to study the impact of global changes—such as population growth, resource scarcity, urbanization, migration, and economic development—on people’s lives, from their environment and health to their security and economic wellbeing.
Context - Megacities

Megacities: The Real Population Bomb?

Apr 11, 2012
If forecasts hold, the 21st century will be the urban century—with three-quarters of world population residing in cities by 2050. In this set of interviews, two experts project dramatically distinct scenarios for our swiftly urbanizing planet.

Call for Papers: Reducing Urban Poverty

Jan 25, 2012
The Comparative Urban Studies Project, USAID’s Urban Programs Team, the International Housing Coalition, the World Bank, and Cities Alliance are teaming up a third time to co-sponsor an academic paper competition for graduate and PhD level students focused on different challenges facing urban centers in the developing world.

Why Washington History Matters: Lessons from U Street

Nov 22, 2011
Why Washington History Matters: Lessons from U Street reviews the importance of U Street for Washington, D.C. history, arguing that the exploration of local history can expand our knowledge of larger questions of urban life.

Kennan Institute Director Blair Ruble Speaks on the Challenge of Urban Diversity in Russia

Sep 21, 2011
Kennan Institute Director Blair Ruble delivered a major speech on urban diversity in an era of large-scale migration in Yekaterinburg (September 12) and Moscow (September 19). The Moscow speech was delivered at a conference cosponsored by the Kennan Institute and the Gorbachev Foundation.

Those Who Would Carry the Water

Dec 24, 2010
This article by Mark Nepo will appear as the introduction in the forthcoming Fetzer Institute and Wilson Center publication, Our Shared Future: Environmental Pathways to Peace, based on an event cosponsored at the Wilson Center in January 2009.

Defusing the Bomb: Overcoming Pakistan's Population Challenge

Jun 16, 2010
Pakistan's population—currently about 185 million—is expected to rise to 335 million by 2050. On June 9, the Wilson Center hosted a day-long conference to examine both the challenges and opportunities of Pakistan's demographics, and to discuss how best to tackle the former and maximize the latter.

Pages

The Wilson Weekly

Experts & Staff

  • Blair A. Ruble // Director, Global Sustainability and Resilience Program, and Senior Advisor, Kennan Institute
  • Allison Garland // Program Associate, Comparative Urban Studies Project
  • Lauren Herzer // Program Associate, Environmental Change and Security Program and Global Health Initiative