Last Wednesday the International and Global Studies Program hosted an event titled "The New Global Cities: Poverty, Opportunity and Improvised Urban Lives" in which panelists discussed social tensions and disparities in three growing cities.

The event was part of the IGS Conversations series, which was instituted last year. Each conversation centers on a theme and features an expert panelist and two IGS seniors who present on their thesis research or experiences abroad. The speakers at Wednesday's conversation were Moises Lino e Silva, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and IGS lecturer who will be teaching two courses next semester at Brandeis; Shinhye Oh '13; and Tripti Singh '13.

Lino e Silva will teach "IGS 170A: Rise of Brazil" and "ANTH 129B: Global, Transnational, and Diasporic Communities" next semester.

Prof. Chandler Rosenberger (IGS), chair of the IGS Program, said that the event's theme of global cities would focus on "the rich, the poor [and] the extremes of this amazing new world of globalization" in which "three centuries are happening in decades."

According to Rosenberger, Lino e Silva's presentation focused on Brazilian urban life, in shantytowns called favelas, and what freedom means when the state is not providing "the resources it's supposed to."

Lino e Silva explained that he lived in a favela in Rio de Janeiro for two years as a part of his anthropological research.

A defining feature of Brazilian favelas is their proximity to rich areas of the city, said Line e Silva. Favelas arose in areas with construction and development because poorer laborers squatted near their workplaces, creating favelas.

According to Lino e Silva, there have been changes to police and state treatment of the favelas due to the upcoming 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, both of which will be held in Rio de Janeiro. There is currently a police occupation and "pacification" efforts in the favela in which Lino e Silva worked, in contrast to the only two or three police raids he encountered in his two years living in the favela, he said.

Many favela residents migrated from the poorest region of Brazil in the northeast, said Lino e Silva. This migration, however, is not motivated entirely by money but often by media images of cities and a desire to explore other parts of the world, which speaks to a global impact on local migration, he continued.

His presentation was followed by Oh's, who spoke about the nouveau riche, or new rich, class and social disparities in Beijing. The disparities stem in part from political ideals, beginning with the Communist Party's emphasis on economic equality and followed by the opening up of the economy in the 1980s and '90s, said Oh.

According to Oh, the nouveau riche are characterized by conspicuous spending, urbanization and westernization and the use of purchasing as a form of self-identification and as an extension of oneself. This has changed the physical structure of Beijing with the construction of malls and department stores and the razing of historical and cultural landmarks in pursuit of office buildings and other markers of modernization, she said. This social disparity also contributes to a disparity in power and legal rights, Oh continued.

The migration to cities has led to a "floating" population that travels for work purposes, which sometimes comprise up to one third of urban populations, said Oh. As non-residents, this group does not receive some government services, such as education, and despite its important role in doing services that others do not want to do, is "marginalized and dismissed," she continued.

Singh then spoke about Chandigarh, India, a city of one million that was founded in 1952. It is an anomaly among "emerging cities in developing countries" because of its high per capita income and 90 percent development, she said.

Due to an architectural emphasis on features such as parks and government buildings-as Chandigarh is the capital of two states-the growing population of the city has had difficulties in finding areas to convert into living spaces, which has led to an increase in slum development, said Singh.

In contrast to other Indian cities, and to Lino e Silva's presentation on Rio de Janeiro, these slums exist on the periphery of the city, according to Singh. Similar to Rio de Janeiro, they developed for migrant laborers who contributed to the development of the city, she continued.

While in Chandigarh, Singh worked with Developing Indigenous Resources, a nongovernmental organization that works to improve health, education and income generation in the city's slums. Singh worked specifically to give women the skills to make paper bags, the demand for which has increased due to a ban on plastic bags in the city, she said. She added that this emphasis on vocational skills and investment in human capital is important in improving the conditions for slum residents.

The series will resume in the spring, wrote Rosenberger in an email to the Justice.