Thriving Cities offers important insights for scholars, practitioners, and citizens in evaluating the well-being of their communities.
We are a research initiative born out the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at UVA. We are dedicated to exploring what it means and what it takes for a city to thrive.
Wondering why we keep throwing around the word "indicators"? On the blog today by Stephen Macekura, how indicators and measurement helps us understand what it means to thrive in today's cities
A Brief History of Indicators Part 2 Our last blog post highlighted some of the history surrounding indicators and measurements. We now turn to a question: How do all these measurements help us understand what it means to thrive in today's cities?
If you haven't yet, check out our newest tool - the Indicator Explorer (http://explore.thrivingcities.com)
For a brief history of indicators, read our most recent blog post.
A Brief History of Indicators Part 1 We are awash in indicators. From big aggregate economic metrics such Gross Domestic Product (GDP), to more socially oriented indexes such as the Human Development Index (HDI), and all popular demographic statistics—life expectancy, to carbon footprints and “happiness” metrics—we measure almost all a...
02/03/2017
Learn more about our work in Richmond and our new Indicator Explorer tool in this feature by University of Virginia
Thriving Cities: How UVA and Civic Leaders Can Make Urban Life Great A new, free program out of the University of Virginia is helping communities figure out what it means – and takes – for cities to thrive in an increasingly urban world.
For the past two years a team of Thriving Cities researchers have worked to build an interactive, publicly available, online data-discernment tool for practitioners and stakeholders of all kinds seeking to measure the health and well-being of their community.
We’re proud to announce today the release of the first version of this tool, the Indicator Explorer. Please check it out, and let us know what you think!
Indicator Explorer • Thriving Cities in human society contain and depend upon an array of fundamental endowments. These endowments give expression to universally-recognizable ends that are essential to human thriving. In turn, they become actualized within specific social practices and institutions and have distinctive histories that s...
01/10/2017
How a North Carolina startup incubator got serious about diversity - Technical.ly Raleigh-Durham's American Underground has more businesses led by women and people of color than the national average. In a new report, the team shares how they did it.
10/03/2016
New from the Thriving Cities' Blog! A book review on place attachment!
09/16/2016
We had a great conversation this afternoon with our distinguished panelists at Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.
09/08/2016
Looking forward to being a part of this celebration!
https://news.virginia.edu/content/uvas-humanties-festival-putting-spotlight-humanities
UVA’s ‘Human/Ties’ Festival Putting Spotlight on Humanities A UVA-sponsored festival to celebrate the 50th birthday of the National Endowment of the Humanities is bringing internationally acclaimed writers, artists and scholars to Charlottesville next week.
09/07/2016
Another new post up at the Thriving Cities Blog!
http://thrivingcities.com/blog/walkability-and-thriving-city
Walkability and the Thriving City Aside from improvements to cardiovascular health, walking, particularly within one’s community, provides a myriad of benefits.
08/31/2016
New at the Thriving Cities Blog!
http://thrivingcities.com/blog/local-leadership-and-civic-networks
Local Leadership and Civic Networks The next time a city or community is struggling, rather than looking only to macroeconomic forces or national policymakers for reasons, we should equally examine the strength of local leadership and the texture of their networks.
08/29/2016
Journalist and TV writer David Simon (The Wire, Treme) is coming to Charlottesville to be part of "Urban Flourishing"—a panel discussion with author Suketu Mehta, humanities champion Phoebe Stein (Maryland Humanities), and sociologist Joshua Yates (Thriving Cities).
This free event is part of Human/Ties, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It will be held at Charlottesville's The Paramount Theater of Charlottesville on Friday, Sept. 16, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm.
Learn more about these speakers and other events at http://humanties2016.com.