Contributor(s): Professor Michael Storper, Dr Thomas Kemeny, Dr Naji Makarem | How well a city will cope with new opportunities and challenges relies on economic specialisation, human capital formation, and institutional factors. World-leading economic geographer Michael Storper challenges many conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings in his new book The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies. lessons from San Francisco and Los Angeles (co-authored with Thomas Kemeny, Naji Makarem and Taner Osman). Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, Professor Storper examines previously underexplored capacities for organisational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders, to explain the economic success – or failure – of metropolitan regions. The event concludes with a Q&A session with the authors. Michael Storper (@michaelstorper) is Professor of Economic Geography at LSE, and holds Professorships at Sciences-Po and UCLA. Thomas Kemeny (@KemenyThomas) is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Southampton. Naji Makarem is Lecturer in the Bartlett Development Planning Unit at University College London. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose is a Professor of Economic Geography at LSE, and current President of the Regional Science Association International. The Geography and Environment department at LSE (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change.