City leadership webinar draws a worldwide audience

Dr Alessandro Sancino, Director of the Citizenship & Governance strategic research area (SRA), organised an international webinar with political and civil society leaders from Italy and the UK on 24 March 2021.

This was the first in a series of seminars hosted by the Citizenship & Governance SRA, positioning The Open University as the European hub for research and knowledge on city and community leadership.

More than 150 attendees from all over the world listened to speakers from Bergamo, Bristol, London and Milan for Cities and Communities beyond Covid-19? There were discussions concerning their respective city’s response to the pandemic and how to build more equitable, sustainable and resilient places for a post-Covid-19 world.

The Italian representatives were a Milanese city councillor Dr Bruno Ceccarelli and Dr Giuseppe Guerini, President of Cooperatives Confederation of Bergamo. Bristol’s Deputy Mayor, Dr Asher Craig, and Georgia Gould (Chair of London Councils, Leader of Camden Council and a Kentish Town ward councillor) were also joined by Robin Hambleton, Emeritus Professor of City Leadership from the Bristol-based University of the West of England (UWE).