Milton Friesen, Cardus’s Social Cities program director, has been in high demand recently. The research program is actively working with or in discussion with the cities of Red Deer, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Mississauga, Cambridge, and Kitchener/Waterloo. Friesen was at Congress for the New Urbanism in Buffalo this month, speaking at a Zipcode Calling event. He also manned the Social Cities booth at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference May 30-June 2. And later this month, he will participate in discussions with the Thriving Cities Project at the University of Virginia.

The Social Cities research program has published two white papers this year: Is Social Capital Measurement Still Relevant? and Renewing Canadian Public Policy: Can Subsidiarity Provide the Framework? Additionally, Friesen’s work has been published on The Hedgehog Review‘s Common Place blog, at the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and in Comment magazine.

In January, Friesen led a webinar with Neighbours Community of Practice on Social Capital as a part of their Thought Leaders circle, and has helped with planning and framing support for The Power of Networks conference in September of this year and Community: Programs and Policies June 23-26.

Stay tuned for regular updates on the Social Cities research program’s exciting work!