Urban Radar

In July's radar, we report back from one of the major urban studies conferences - RC21 - which is held every two years in different cities across the world. Bringing together 1200 scholars at the University of Vienna, the 2026 conference provided spaces for provocation and discussion about the methods, approaches and theories we need to identify and address urban inequalities in these contemporary times. 
The central part of the episode is a discussion with the editors of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR) - Mona Fawaz, Liza Weinstein and Nik Theodore - about their 50th anniversary plans. We are excited to announce that these include a proposed collab with Urban Radar to produce a mini-series of special episodes connecting long-standing urban questions raised by scholars over the past five decades to contemporary analysis from emerging researchers.
We also share a series of vox-pops from the conference, with Dolf te Lintelo, Catalina Ortiz, Gabriel Silvestre, Nitin Bathla, Simone Tulumello, Lindsay Sawyer and Vanesa Castan Broto.
Before that, on our radar we discuss:
Whether the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz might herald the development of new 'chokepoint' cities able to control strategic waterways
What Count Binface could learn from previous comedy candidates standing for election
The implications of Berlin's bunker shortage for cultural and arts venues
 The Soho bar brawl and which city has the latest bedtime
Why young people are busy doing nothing in Bangkok
Why environmentalists are disputing the closure of a colonial-era polo club in Delhi
Read More:
Founding IJURR editorial, 1977
Reflections on Critical Urban Studies in Perilous Times
RC21 Conference Website 
From Our Archive:
RIVER/CITY: A conversation with Olivia Casagrande and Roberto Monte-Mor
SEEING THE CITY: A conversation with Junia Mortimer and Felipe Magalhaes
URBAN LABS IN TIMES OF CRISIS AND POST-TRUTH: A conversation with Mona Fawaz and Nausheen Anwar
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: urbanradarpod@gmail.com
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 month's feature Tom and Beth are joined by Professor Nicola Banks from the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester to discuss One World Together, an innovative model of charitable giving that makes sure the bulk of the funding ends up where it is needed most. 
Often less than 10% of what we give to charity gets to where it's needed, and communities are not always the ones deciding what it gets spent on - even though they are the best placed to identify and address local challenges. What if there is a different way?
We discuss:
Why are traditional approaches to charity unsuited to addressing urban poverty around the world?
How does the reduction of international aid impact the existing structural and institutional inequalities which underpin dominant development and donor models of charitable giving? 
How do innovations like One World Together help us rethink charitable approaches to addressing urban poverty? 
Guest:
Nicola Banks is a Professor of Global Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. Her research situates development as a long-term process of transformation and social justice. She has undertaken decades of research on urban poverty, youth and the role of NGOs in global development, including work on employment and livelihoods among the urban poor in Dhaka, Bangladesh and an ESRC Future Research Leaders award to look at youth experiences of urban poverty in Tanzania. She is Director of Social Responsibility for the School for Environment, Education and Development (SEED) and in 2022 launched One World Together, a global movement for trust-based giving which has been recognised for outstanding social and environmental impact through the University of Manchester’s Making a Difference Award.
Donate:
Home - One World Together
Read more:
Power and its discontents: The long road to systemic change in the aid sector - ScienceDirect
NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited: Still Too Close for Comfort? - ScienceDirect
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: urbanradarpod@gmail.com
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 Tom and Beth are joined by Professor Sarah Marie Hall from the University of Manchester to reflect on ten years since Brexit and specifically how austerity has altered the lifecourses of young people in Barcelona, Sardinia and Greater Manchester. 
Together, they discuss how Brexit layered on top of existing crises, how community podcasts helped chart economic change during this extended period of waiting, and why valuing everyday lived experience as evidence is a radical act. And, perhaps, even a way to finally bring austerity as a lived condition to an end. 
Go to 32:54 for this discussion.
Also on our radar:
Why the UK is introducing Dutch-style youth hubs
How the boundaries between humans and animals are changing in the city
Whether local authorities are ready for a hybrid war with Russia
How human factors, from corruption to poverty and planning regulations, might have worsened damage from the earthquake in Venezuela
"Goonism" and the underground economy of political street violence in Kenyan cities
Banning flags in Oxfordshire 
Guest:
Sarah Marie Hall joined University of Manchester in October 2012 as a Hallsworth Research Fellow in Political Economy and became a Professor in 2022. She is a member of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives and Manchester Urban Institute, where she previously co-chaired the Urban Justice, Gender and Social Difference Feminist Collective. In February 2021 she won a £1.5m UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship on the theme of Austerity and Altered Lifecourses, a 5- year project across the UK, Spain and Italy which has recently been extended for three further years. Click here to visit the Future Lives and Austerity Digital Exhibition. 
From our archives:
Episode 15 on Brexit and rats 
Episode 11 on flag wars
Read more:
Much loved collection for Butterfly Conservation, in memory of Malcolm Tait
Archipelagic Technonatures (Simon Marvin)
Watch Salisbury Poisonings: The Untold Story | Stream free on Channel 4
Africa's shadow enforcers - The Continent
On Staying (Will Mason)
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: urbanradarpod@gmail.com
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.

High up in the Andes mountain range, two rivers begin their journeys. Starting in the El Plomo hill, one becomes the Mapocho river travelling though Chile into Santiago, dividing the city in two.  The other makes its way from the Peruvian Andes and develops into a complex network of waters and rivers to become the Amazon basin, one of the longest rivers in the world. Rivers such as these shape and are shaped by the cities they meet.
In this month’s feature Tom and Beth are joined by Dr Olivia Casagrande and Professor Roberto Monte-Mór to ask: 
What can urbanists learn from studying the Mapocho and Amazon rivers?
How does thinking with rivers challenge our categories of urbanization, racialization and indigeneity?
How do creative and visual methods enable us to see or dream with the river differently?
Together they take a fascinating tour, diving into concepts of ‘extended naturalization’ and ‘fluvial epistemic alternatives’; following what river/city intersections mean for metropolitan green-blue planning; unpacking the implications of giving legal rights to rivers and the meanings of indigenous narratives; and how storytelling with and through rivers helps us dream of alternative ways of being and doing. 
Guests
Olivia Casagrande is a social anthropologist engaged in interdisciplinary and collaborative research on inequalities, political and racial violence, the (post)colonial city and alternative urban epistemologies. She is a Lecturer at the School of Geography and Planning, University of Sheffield. She has recently completed an ESRC project with the Epew Collective in Santiago, Chile, which led to multiple creative outputs developed along the Mapocho River, available on Fillke Pewma. Recent works concern questions of authorship and engagements in collaborative research with indigenous groups.
Roberto Monte-Mór is a Professor at the Centre for Development and Regional Planning and Graduate Centre for Architecture and Urbanism at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. His teaching and research focus on economics and urbanism, particularly urbanization, and planning theories, metropolitan and regional planning, urban and regional economics, solidarity economies, spatial organization, and development alternatives in the Amazon. His photography is the basis of a new work with Junia Mortimer on Urban-Nature Archives, which is also discussed in this paper.
From our archives:
Seeing the City: A discussion with Junia Mortimer and Felipe Magalhaes (Episode 20)
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: urbanradarpod@gmail.com
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 Beth and Tom are joined by Dr Lotte Hargrave from the University of Manchester to discuss whether psephology - the study of elections and voting behaviour - can predict the next Prime Minister of the UK. 
All eyes are turned on the town of Makerfield in Greater Manchester, where Andy Burnham is making a play to win the constituency and head south - back to Westminster, and (probably) a leadership contest to replace Keir Starmer as UK PM. 
With Lotte we discuss whether we can predict the results of the election, the potential outcomes of a win for Burnham for the Greater Manchester mayoralty and why hyperlocal factors suggest it is all still to play for. 
Go to 27:56 for this discussion.
Also on our radar:
Whether the UK needs to introduce maximum indoor temperatures for workplaces as urban heat rises
Rising concern about Ebola in African cities in the shadow of global aid cuts
Activism and urban organising for domestic workers
How urbanization is driving the global sand crisis 
The many faces and contradictions of datacentre resistance
Housing and the World Urban Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan  
Guest:
Dr Lotte Hargrave is a Lecturer in Quantitative Political Science at the University of Manchester and a contracted psephologist for the BBC Elections Programme. Her research focuses on political behaviour, public opinion, gender and stereotyping in politics, and electoral politics. Before joining Manchester, she was Head of Data Science at the polling company Deltapoll. Website: Dr Lotte Hargrave
From our archives:
Interview with Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram (Episode 6)
The Manchester Model - with Adam Leaver and Rich Goulding (Episode 2)
Read more:
sand — RareEarth_KateDawson
AI Data Centers Are The New Plantations Unless We Build Them Differently - Honolulu Civil Beat
Building Climate Resilient Housing - World Cities Report
Late deciders, higher turnout - The Conversation
Political favourability ratings, May 2026

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: urbanradarpod@gmail.com
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.