Cities and their communities everywhere are challenged by socio-economic shifts in a global environment of escalating change. Shifts in values between generations in a more individualistic society, increased mobility of people leading to more diversity in communities, changing employment requirements, and an on-going impact of new technologies in their cumulative impact confront cities with a broad spectrum of complex challenges.
In some cases, social change has gone along with a weakening of social bonds and trust. Recent events, such as the UK riots, have highlighted this spectrum of issues, but deeper social changes need to be understood with holistic responses, often innovative and non-traditional, brought forward. This PIE Theme adddresses those issues;