Welcome to the Cities and Urbanization Concentration at the Graduate Program in International Affairs

The Cities and Urbanization (CU) concentration has a focus on the respatialization of economy and community, cities as incubators for new forms of social life, urbanization as the context of new challenges for environmental and economic management and poverty reduction.

To learn more about the CU concentration, please follow the links below:

This semester's CU spotlight is on Marc Mousky

During the summer of 2008, 3rd semester GPIA student Marc Mousky will travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to intern with Favela-Bairro. One of the best-known urban upgrading programs in Latin America, the Favela-Bairro ("slum-neighborhood") program is considered by many as a model for the urbanization of informal settlements.
Created in 1994, the program came out of the Program of the Urbanization of Popular Settlements of Rio de Janeiro, beginning as a self-help favela urbanization program. Instead of razing slum settlements and displacing and relocating favela residents, the municipality funded and implemented street improvement and sanitation works by hiring workers from the beneficiary communities.
Favela-Bairro and the city government, thanks to additional funding by the Inter-American Development Bank, are trying to improve the quality of life in the communities by upgrading their infrastructure and providing social services. The program operates in about 120 of the over 400 favelas in Rio, and is working to provide residents with paved streets, running water, potable water, electricity, street lights, waste disposal, day care centers and counseling for substance abuse, domestic violence and teen pregnancy.