Urban Radar

In this first episode of Series 2 of Urban Radar, Beth and Tom start to tackle some of the many ways in which the current moment of geopolitical turmoil is filtering down into in cities and towns across the world. 
We make the most of our new Sheffield-Manchester partnership by bringing on Dr. Erika Garcia Fermin (29:45 minutes onwards) from the University of Manchester's Global Development Institute, for an in-depth conversation on the Venezuala crisis and its urban dimensions. With Erika we delve into Venezuela's recent history and how Hugo Chavez's distinctly urban populist project of redistribution morphed over two decades into extreme authoritarianism, mass population exodus and dysfunctional, disempowered city governments under Maduro. 
We then consider whether and how the dramatic US intervention and removal of Maduro might serve as a window of opportunity for opposition forces in the cities to reverse the tide of authoritarian, centralizing governance. 
Before, this, on our radar (from 05:40) we ponder: 
- The view from Greenland's capital, Nuuk, on potential US invasion and what this tells us about how urban areas are being geopolitically re-mapped
- the approval of plans for a Chinese 'mega-embassy' in London and its local and geopolitical significance
- Overlooked cities and towns in the US affected by Trumpian funding cuts and other 'erasures'
- Reforms to neighbourhood governance in the UK, and the importance of the neighbourhood scale for addressing wider division and challenges to democracy
- Dis/misinformation and crime stats in London, and the growing recognition of the need for urban anti-disinfo strategies 
- Iran's protest and the politics of physically relocating capital cities 
Guest:
Erika Garcia Fermin completed her PhD at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, in 2024. Grounded in questions of urban governance and socio-spatial justice, her work focuses on the politics of value extraction in urban development, especially around urban land, and in how these processes relate to the ways urban spaces are planned, governed, and valued.
Read More:
https://thetruesize.com/
Disinformation in the City: Response Playbook - https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/5060724/Disinformation-in-the-City-Reponse-Playbook_compressed-1.pdf
Controlling the Capital: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/controlling-the-capital-9780192868329?cc=gb&lang=en& 
Hosts:
Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441)
Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)
Email feedback to: [email protected]
You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast
Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast.

Urban Radar is a podcast series which reflects on current events and emerging trends through the lens of cities and urban life.  
Launched in 2025, Urban Radar hit the UK social science podcast charts, and was amongst the top 5% of new podcast entrants (according to one major streaming platform!).  It reached listeners in every continent, over 80 countries and 670 cities. Series 1 included 18 episodes, with 40 guests, including leading urban studies theorists and thinkers, early career scholars and PhD students. 
Series 2 of Urban Radar will continue to place urban dynamics at the centre of contemporary global affairs.  Hosted by Professor Tom Goodfellow and Professor Beth Perry, guests will be drawn from across the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester in a new transpennine collaboration. 
In this Series 2 trailer, Tom and Beth reflect on the first year of recording Urban Radar and share what's coming up in 2026.  
Episodes will be released 1-2 times per month, including a monthly round-up of the urban issues underlying the headlines and in-depth discussions with guests. We will continue to invite members of our research communities to provide evidence-based informed insights into the ways that cities and urban communities are impacted by, driving and responding to current events.
Hosts:
Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441)
Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)
Email feedback to: [email protected]
You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast
Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast.

This month, we (Beth and Tom) are podding alone, using the final episode of the year to reflect on some of the big themes we’ve discussed in 2025 as well as on the process of making Urban Radar.  We start with our monthly radar for December, dipping into three current stories each as usual. 
Following this we offer some quick-fire thoughts on a number of issues and themes that have resurfaced repeatedly throughout the year and remain prominent as it draws to a close. Finally, we consider some of the highlights of podcasting itself, before unveiling a surprise in store for Series 2…
On our monthly radar for December: 
Care work and the city - from the UK’s current ‘carers scandal’ to Bogota’s care blocks
Urban ‘brandalism’, ZAP games and ‘subtervising’ (confused? Head to 9:15 to find out…)
The decline of trial by jury in the UK and what this might mean for urban justice and efforts to overcome spatial, class and linguistic bias
America’s new National Security Strategy and how this connects to Trump’s war on urban diversity
The Australian social media ban and its potentially different ramifications in urban vs rural areas 
Syrian cities one year after the fall of Assad
On our rapid fire ‘radar of radars’, we consider:
Military coups and their urban implications
Technology and public space
Flag urbanism and the branding of the city
The UK-Denmark anti-migration love-in
Solidarity, belonging and ‘urban lawfare’
The entanglements of local infrastructure and global finance
Urban warfare, critical minerals and strongman diplomacy
Read More
The Independent Review of Carer's Allowance Overpayments: A Welcome Step Towards Wider Reform of Welfare Benefits for Carers | the Centre for Care
Caring Cities: Towards a Public Urban Culture of Care?
Dismantling the advertising city: Subvertising and the urban commons to come
Activating the playful city: A review of ludic urbanism and introducing the ludic continuum framework

Hosts:
Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441)
Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)
Email feedback to: [email protected]
You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast
Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast.

In this episode we are joined by Professor Julia Moses to consider the working lives and rights of children, and then Dr Dani Madrid-Morales to discuss disinformation and how it plays out across urban and rural areas. Reflecting on World Children's Day on 20 November, we explore children's rights and how these relate to questions of labour, as well as how attitudes to child labour have varied over time and in different national contexts (28:08). Then, in light of recent accusations from Donald Trump towards the BBC's reporting, we delve into the the challenge of misinformation, how it is changing and how it differs spatially across and within urban and rural areas (48:24). 
Also on our radar:
how policy learning between Denmark and the UK is shaping Labour's new 'hostile environment'
whether new curbs on ticket touts suggest lessons for wider market regulation
the deadly response to urban protests in post-election Tanzania 
how Belem has shaped the agenda and design of COP30
whether the world is urbanizing faster than we think
what recent UK statistics on multiple deprivation tell us about urban decline
Guests:
Julia Moses is a Professor of Modern History in the School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities at the University of Sheffield. She is currently leading a project, funded by AHRC, on Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts, with colleagues at the Universities of Edinburgh, Dar es Salaam and Ruhr University Bochum. The call for the virtual exhibition, mentioned in the podcast, is here Virtual Exhibition – Call for Contributions! – Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts.
Dr Dani Madrid Morales is a Lecturer in Journalism and Global Communication in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication at the University of Sheffield. He co-leads the Disinformation Research Cluster in his School. His own work studies the geopolitics of disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from an audience perspective. His latest book on this topic, co-edited with Herman Wasserman, is Disinformation in the Global South (Wiley). Dani also helps curate disinfoafrica.org, a website that brings together research on mis/disinformation in Africa. 
Hosts:
Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441)
Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)
Email feedback to: [email protected]
You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast
Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast.

In this feature, Tom and Beth discuss the Global Infrastructure Race with colleagues from the Urban Institute (UI), recorded live as part of the UI’s 10 year anniversary celebrations. Drawing on insights emerging from the GlobalCORRIDOR and Pluralize projects, Jon Silver, Zhengli Huang and Linda Westman share their interpretation of the Global Infrastructure Race, its urban impacts and how we can centre and decentre the role of China. Specifically they discuss:
What is the Global Infrastructure Race and how can we understand its diverse geopolitical and economic manifestations?
How can historical and contemporary analysis help unpack the role of China and Chinese investments?
What are the impacts on cities and urban inequalities of these activities in and beyond China?             
Guests
Professor Jon Silver is an urban geographer interested in the uneven ways in which infrastructure is planned, operationalised and experienced, working across a range of cities in the global norths and south. He leads the GlobalCORRIDOR project.
Dr Zhengli Huang works on Chinese investment in infrastructure across Africa. She worked and lived in Kenya and her fieldwork experience extends to Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, and Mozambique. She works on GlobalCORRIDOR and Pluralize. 
Dr Linda Westman focusses on climate politics, urban transformation, and sustainability discourses, including the policy/governance aspects of low-carbon development in cities in China. She leads the Pluralize project. 
Read More 
The Material Geographies of the Belt and Road Initiative
Governing Climate Change in a Changing World 
Chinese Economic Zones in Africa
Funding
GlobalCORRIDOR (ID: 947779) funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Pluralize was originally granted by the HORIZON Call: ERC-2022-STG and funded by UKRI (EP/Y00020X/1).
Hosts:
Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441)
Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)
Email feedback to: [email protected]
You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast
Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast.