dr. benjamin barb, senior research scholar of the center for philanthropy and civil society at the graduate center of the city university of new york, dr. barber. [applause] >> thank you so much for the boston book festival for inviting me at a chance also interact begin with people who i've come to be really fun of in the world we live in today which is people like mayor wong, mayor rivera and mayor walsh, and also tom menino who i had the pleasure also a beating earlier -- meeting earlier this year. to be with mayor walsh, mayor wong and mayor rivera to talk about cities and mayors is a particular pleasure, and they're glad they're here because for a change i.t. to say something about people who have a chance to either say are you crazy? or, yeah, i think you got that right. but let me just back up for a minute and talk a little bit about the era in which we are living and why for many cities, mayors, city councils and this citizens of cities have become so important. in an air of isil, ebola and terrorism and national gridlock and the congress, not just here but in many places in the world, that our political systems around the world are in

dr. benjamin barber.ll for being here today, thank you for attending. ♪ >> coverage from the sixth annual boston book festival continues. .. >> and vikram as a fiction writer who stumbled into nonfiction. sitting right next to him i have howard gardner who is a professor of cognition and education at the harvard graduate school of education and the author of "the app generation." and then i have judith donath, who is the founder of the social miss machine group. i'm going to invite the audience to participate as soon as i can. and we will begin by sure presentations at each of the authors and after that i will ask if you rest in. so we are going to begin with judith, please. >> hello. what i wanted to do will start by telling you some beautiful organisms that look like something you might see in the crib in ca. but they are actually visualizations and the artist based them upon different features of spam, how long it is, the words that are used, to determine the colors and how they grow. and in the online

dr. benjamin barber.te center o. >> 84 inviting me and the people who i have come to be fond i'd like lisa wong and dan rivera end martin walsh but to talk about cities and mayors is a particular pleasure because for a change i can say something about people who say are you crazy? but let me just back up for a minute to talk about the era that we're living and why this city mayors and the city council have become so important. in the era of ebola and terrorism and ices and a national grid lock l over the world as a result democracy is in crisis also half of those able to vote to do in those the most in need to you don't and it is a political system that is the great preponderance are ruled by a minority so there is the feeling of a political system rainout. and with the economy if the last 400 years but have become increasingly dysfunctional. two-seat not just in england or china but other parts of the world with the european union that great experiment to find to attract attention from the populist react