News & Events Event Reports

Sixth Global Summit: Urban Planning for Economic Opportunities and Social Cohesion

Publication Date:

22/01/2026

Content Type:

Event Reports

Share:

Tags:

Public spaceSixth Global SummitSocial CohesionTorontourban planningUrban resilience

— 6 minutes reading time

This report provides a summary of discussions during the session and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Strong Cities Network Management Unit, Strong Cities members, event sponsors or participants.

Introduction

On 9 – 11 December 2025, the Strong Cities Network held its Sixth Global Summit in Toronto (Canada), bringing together more than 300 representatives of local governments, national governments, civil society organisations, academia, the private sector and international organisations. This included nearly 60 mayors and governors, as well as 110 other local government officials from 100 cities and 42 countries. Under the theme Stronger Together: Forging Safer, Connected, Thriving Cities in a Changing World, the Summit provided a platform for city leaders to share practical and innovative solutions to prevent and respond to hate, extremism and polarisation, and build safer, more resilient and more inclusive communities.

Cities are increasingly using urban planning not only to manage growth, but to actively shape social inclusion, community resilience and economic opportunities. As inequality and polarisation intensify, planning decisions are becoming central to whether residents feel connected to their city and confident in local institutions.

This session explored how urban development can function as a long-term prevention tool. Speakers highlighted that it influences who has access to opportunity and representation, and whether public spaces foster connection or deepen division between communities.

By embedding social cohesion objectives into urban planning frameworks, cities can address root drivers of alienation and resentment while strengthening trust between residents and local government.

Key Themes 

1. Urban planning as a driver of economic inclusion and prevention

Affordability and access to opportunity are not only economic questions, but central determinants of social cohesion and prevention. Brad Bradford, City Councillor for Beaches – East York, City of Toronto (Ontario, Canada), highlighted how housing affordability has become one of the most powerful stressors shaping public trust and social stability. He noted that when young people and working families are pushed out of neighbourhoods, it weakens social ties and fuels frustration that can be exploited by polarising narratives. Toronto’s focus on mixed-use development and transit-oriented housing aims to ensure that growth does not come at the cost of inclusion.

Emily Marion Clancy, Deputy Mayor, City of Bologna (Italy), echoed this by emphasising how urban planning can either reproduce inequality or actively counter it. Bologna’s approach to regeneration links housing and access to public services, ensuring that development is not just physical renewal but a vehicle for social mobility. She underlined that planning becomes preventive when it creates visible pathways to opportunity, especially for young people and marginalised groups.

2. Public space as a platform for belonging and interaction

Public space is where cohesion becomes visible in everyday life. In Brad Bradford described investments in parks, community centres and sports infrastructure as essential meeting points that bring together residents who might otherwise remain socially separate. These spaces were framed as practical tools for reducing isolation and creating informal contact across residents of various backgrounds.

In Bologna, public space was presented as deliberately multifunctional. Libraries, cultural venues and neighbourhood squares are designed to host public service programmes and community events simultaneously, normalising diversity and encouraging interaction between different social groups. This integration was described as key to preventing fragmentation in rapidly changing urban environments.

Perspectives from other cities reinforced that when public spaces are unevenly distributed or poorly maintained, they become symbols of exclusion. Conversely, when cities invest in accessible and welcoming environments, they communicate that all communities are valued. Public space therefore, emerged as both a practical and symbolic foundation for belonging.

3. Community participation as a condition for legitimacy and impact

Participation was framed not as a procedural requirement, but as a core condition for effective urban planning. In Bologna, participation is institutionalised through neighbourhood consultations and partnerships with civil society. Emily Marion Cla (Italy) described this as essential to ensuring that regeneration reflects lived realities and builds democratic confidence. When residents recognise their own priorities in planning outcomes, legitimacy grows. In Toronto, Councillor Bradford noted that resistance to development often reflects frustration with being excluded from decision-making rather than opposition to change itself. He stressed that early, continuous and transparent engagement reduces mistrust and prevents planning from becoming a source of division.

However, session participants warned that symbolic or late-stage consultation can worsen distrust. Across the discussion, participatory planning was framed as a form of prevention: it reduces feelings of powerlessness and strengthens residents’ connection to local institutions and the neighbourhoods they live in.

Participants also stressed that fragmented data systems across agencies hinder effective planning and resource allocation. Burnaby’s (British Columbia, Canada) data dashboard and Toronto’s data initiatives were cited as promising examples of how cities can better track trends and improve strategic responses. However, even where data exists, it often underrepresents the true scale of harm.

4. Managing growth and change without deepening inequality

Managing rapid urban growth was consistently identified as one of the greatest risks to cohesion. Councillor Bradford spoke about the tension between accommodating growth and protecting affordability in Toronto, warning that displacement can weaken neighbourhood stability and long-term belonging. Development, he argued, must be paired with strong protections for social infrastructure and accessibility.

Deputy Mayor Emily Marion Clancy highlighted that Bologna faced a similar challenge, but from a different angle, in which the local government has to balance modernisation with heritage protection and social equity. Urban regeneration was described as successful only when existing communities benefit directly rather than being pushed out.

Next Steps

Strong Cities will further integrate urban planning into its work on prevention, recognising spatial policy as a powerful but often underused tool. This includes strengthening peer learning on how housing, regeneration and public space design can support inclusion and reduce social fragmentation.

The Network will work to connect urban planners more closely with local government practitioners in prevention, community safety and resilience, helping cities align spatial development with social objectives. It will also support the sharing of practical examples that demonstrate how planning decisions contribute to building trust, belonging and stability.

Finally, Strong Cities will encourage national governments and donors to recognise urban planning as a core component of whole-of-society prevention, ensuring that investment in cities supports long-term, structural approaches to cohesion and resilience.

Additional Resources

Recent Strong Cities policy briefs and resources:

• City Leadership in Partnering with Local Communities for Social Cohesion: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• National-Local Cooperation: Opportunities and Lessons Learned for Secondary and Tertiary Prevention, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• City Leadership in the Face of Rising Incivility and Polarisation: Ten Considerations for Mayors and Local Governments, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• Innovations in Prevention: Piloting Multi-Actor Frameworks in Small and Mid-Sized Cities in the United States, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Cities: Building a Multi-Actor Local Prevention Framework, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Toolkit for Manitoba Municipalities: Addressing Anti-Government Hate and Harassment, Strong Cities Network, 2025
• A Guide for Cities: Preventing Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for Mayors: Preventing and Responding to Hate, Extremism & Polarisation, Strong Cities Network, updated 2025
• A Guide for City-Led Response, Strong Cities Network, May 2024
• City Spotlights Library, Strong Cities Network

Donors & Partners

The Sixth Global Summit was co-hosted with the City of Toronto and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and delivered with generous support from the Government of Canada, The Fourth Freedom Forum, The Toronto Foundation and Charities Aid Foundation.

Contact Information 

For more information about the Sixth Global Summit or the Strong Cities Network, please contact [email protected].

News & EVENTS

Stay up to date with recent news, articles and event reports

News & Events

Looking for something in our Resource Hub?

Or explore all resources

Nominated for Best Animated Short at Cannes

Watch now

Join US

Looking to become a Strong City?

Get in touch