STL Assistant Professor Stephen Minas has presented the case study of Shenzhen at a global conference on cities and migration held in Florence, Italy. The launch of the Cities, Mobility and Membership Research Collaborative was hosted by the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute (EUI). The research collaborative has a genuinely global membership, including Peking University, and is organized by Professor Dr. Liav Orgad, Director, Global Citizenship Governance at the Robert Schuman Center.
The workshop included sessions on a variety of topics connected with the theme of cities and mobility, including urban citizenship, adaptive urbanism, cities as places of refuge, and cities and digitalization. Case studies were presented on these contexts from both developed and developing countries. In his presentation, Dr. Minas discussed the case of Shenzhen as a ‘new’ city largely constructed by internal migrants. Dr. Minas argued that the Shenzhen experience highlights several themes of relevance to the research collaborative, including migration and the challenges of sustainability and climate mitigation, migration and the digitalization of city infrastructure, and South-South cooperation.
