Building Social Capital with Design

“Building Social Capital with Design”

A Lecture with Geeta Mehta

Geeta Mehta is an Indian-American social entrepreneur, urban designer, architect and author passionate about bringing the issues of social justice into the design discourse. She is the co-founder of two NGOs: Asia Initiatives and URBZ, and an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation at Columbia University.

Geeta will discuss why she questions the current practice of measuring the return on investments (RoI) of all projects just with money, and how they should be instead measured with social capital, ecological capital, and financial capital. She will also show how SoCCs (social capital credits) the award-winning community currency for social good she has innovated is changing neighborhoods and improving lives in projects across 4 countries. These transformations include river restorations, public space creation and management, rainwater harvesting, livelihood creation and more.

Free and open to the public. Organized as part of the Urban Design Lecture Series.