This interdisciplinary meeting of scholars and activists, now in its third year, is organized by Emory University’s Center for Digital Scholarship, Georgia State University’s Cities Initiative and Department of Geosciences, and Georgia Tech’s schools of Architecture, Building Construction, City and Regional Planning, Civil and Environmental Engineering, History, Technology and Society, and Public Policy. The day-long symposium will be held at Georgia Tech’s Historic Academy of Medicine in midtown Atlanta.

Atlanta has long been portrayed as a city governed by a moderate, biracial coalition of business-oriented elites quietly collaborating around major initiatives – the so-called “Atlanta Way.” In the current era, Atlanta faces a variety of challenges: the legacy of the foreclosure crisis and great recession; fragmentation of local government; congestion and sprawl; widening inequality; the challenge to embrace sustainable environmental practices; and the goal of providing quality public education. What is the nature of the challenges facing Atlanta? Are city life and public decision making still governed by the Atlanta Way, or will the future bring a new system of governance and civic engagement?

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