{"id":1259728,"date":"2022-11-14T14:39:03","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T13:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/?page_id=1259728"},"modified":"2025-06-18T12:45:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T10:45:31","slug":"rethinking-cities-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ie.edu\/insights\/rethinking-cities-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Might Have Missed 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Amidst the whirlwind of dramatic stories that dominated the headlines in 2023, crucial stories often eluded attention. Delve into the year’s untold narratives to find the forgotten events and trends overshadowed by the news cycle’s relentless pace.<\/h1>\n

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Eniola Harrison<\/a><\/h2>\n

Unveiling the often underreported, 2023 bore witness to Afrobeats international takeover and bold climate policymaking in Africa.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner gap=”35″][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1701767832159{border-radius: 1px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Africa’s Cultural Renaissance” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1750243355011{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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In case you missed it, Afrobeats has taken over the world. Walk into any fashion store, cafe, or club in the “West” and you’re more than likely to hear Afrobeats pumping through the speakers. Undoubtedly Africa’s most successful creative and cultural export, its biggest stars Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido, and Rema are selling out arenas in London, New York and beyond. Art and creativity wield the transformative ability to reshape narratives surrounding people and culture, and nowhere is this transformation more crucial than in Africa, where pervasive stereotypical narratives contribute to underdevelopment and insufficient investment.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”A New Narrative on Climate Action” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1750243361251{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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Africa’s inaugural climate summit in Nairobi, Kenya, took place in September 2023 and was witness to the adoption of the game-changing Nairobi Declaration. This bold statement hails Africa’s potential to lead the charge in clean energy and environmental conservation, throwing down the gauntlet for wealthier nations to shift from crisis-mode aid to sustained investment. Despite weathering some of the harshest blows from climate change, Africa receives just 12% of the $300 billion it needs annually for climate adaptation. The summit’s main thrust was to fortify the case for climate financing, with African leaders pressing for swift action, especially from the West.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”35″ css_animation=”zoomIn” el_class=”module-landing-01 module_pad-bottom module_pad-top” css=”.vc_custom_1702553073440{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner gap=”35″][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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Anna Magdalena Wieck<\/a><\/h2>\n

Amidst the noise of the international news cycle, 2023 quietly unfurled profound artistic narratives, from a movement away from screens to the prominence of the 20th century’s female stars.<\/p>\n

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[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner gap=”35″][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Put the screens down” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1750243367497{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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It’s true that online resources and social networks give us unprecedented digital access to artists and artworks, but nothing replaces the experience of viewing\u00a0art with your own eyes. This year, exhibitions of Mark Rothko<\/a> and Lucian Freud<\/a>, just to name two, showcased works with details and depths not visible in reproduction.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Returning looted artifacts” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1750243373675{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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Activists, art historians, and politicians\u00a0in Nepal and beyond are working hard to locate cultural treasures stolen from the nation during the past decades. Recently, they are meeting with success; both the Rubin Museum of Art<\/a> and the Metropolitan\u00a0Museum of Art<\/a> are restituting sculptures that were looted from Nepalese sacred spaces.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Rediscovering women artists of the 20th century” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1750243379901{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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It has been a blockbuster year for 20th-century women artists, with sweeping shows, and accompanying exhibition catalogs, dedicated to Meret Oppenheim<\/a>, Leonora Carrington<\/a>, and Remedios Varo<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”35″ css_animation=”zoomIn” el_class=”module-landing-01 module_pad-bottom module_pad-top” css=”.vc_custom_1702553073440{background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner gap=”35″][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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Cem Kayatekin<\/a><\/h2>\n

Beyond the global spotlight, 2023 witnessed transformative urban shifts, from a focus on the periphery to New York’s taxiless future.<\/p>\n

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[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner gap=”35″][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Remembering the Periphery” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1750243387545{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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There are some noteworthy efforts in Thailand looking at <\/span>rebooting the potential economic vitality of the countryside<\/span><\/a>. While much of urban discourse naturally tends to focus on improving, refining, and reconsidering the nature of the modern city, rural settlements and the hinterland are often left in the periphery. This is a critical mistake, not only socio-politically and economically, but even intellectually. Infrastructure should be available to all citizens, regardless of <\/span>whether<\/span> they live in rural or urban areas. <\/span>Migration to the city must be a choice.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”The Expenses of Mother Nature” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1750243393818{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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Recent assessments note that extreme weather events are costing the world approximately <\/span>16 million dollars an hour for the past 20 years<\/span><\/a>. A rather mind-boggling and somewhat terrifying number, certainly, but one that does grant a bit of optimism as well. In the scope of changing both the footprint and regenerative capacity of our urban and rural settlement patterns, the financial scales are gradually tilting in favor of municipalities, regions, and nation-states taking on some actionable plans for the future. Hopefully sooner rather than later.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”A Taxi-less New York” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1750243399555{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

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New York City has confirmed it will begin experimenting with a <\/span>demand-driven toll<\/span><\/a> for drivers entering the Central Business District of Manhattan. This type of congestion pricing has been used quite effectively in a range of cities since the early 1970s, but it typically requires a confluence of political, economic, and social forces to align for it to be pursued with rigor. How can this type of real-time pricing model subsequently be leveraged to refine the physical nature of our streets to create variations between high, medium, and low-traffic roads, changing our urban fabric for the better?<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row gap=”35″ css_animation=”zoomIn” el_class=”module-landing-01 module_pad-bottom module_pad-top”][vc_column][vc_row_inner gap=”35″][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]\"\"<\/p>\n

Gayle Allard<\/a><\/h2>\n

In a tumultuous year for the global economy, Nigeria’s bold decision to remove fossil fuel subsidies and the uncertainty around the US property market went underreported.<\/p>\n

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Subsidies to fossil fuel consumption are the main culprit of climate change. The World Bank estimates that full fossil fuel price reform, allowing fossil fuel prices to rise to their market level without subsidies, would reduce CO2 emissions globally to 43% below baseline levels by 2030.\u00a0 Many governments are reluctant to remove them because they fear social unrest, however Nigeria, a huge emerging country, removed those subsidies when Bola Tinubu became president in May.\u00a0 Some very heartening results of his reform:<\/p>\n