Urban Radar

In this episode Tom and Beth are joined by Catherine Durose from the University of Liverpool and co-lead of the Co-production Futures Inquiry, and Beth Chitekwe-Biti, Executive Director of Slum Dwellers International (SDI) Secretariat and Community Knowledge Lead for the African Cities Research Consortium. 
Universities are increasingly expected to produce cutting edge research, be relevant and impactful and deliver value to students, governments and industry. They are seen as active players in local, national and international development work with communities. They are also increasingly criticised or even attacked, with scrutiny over their roles across the political spectrum.
In the meantime, many urban researchers have always worked collaboratively, in deep and trusted partnerships with community organisations and residents to improve everyday living or develop advocacy or reform coalitions for urban change. There is plenty of evidence about how universities and academics can work productively together to address urban injustices.
Specifically in this episode, we discuss co-production - what it means, why it matters for urban researchers, practitioners and residents and what conditions we need within universities to do it well. 
Guests:
Professor Catherine Durose is Professor of Public Policy and Co-Director of the University of Liverpool's Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place. She has written extensively on the politics and possibilities of co-production, including for Nature.  She is Co-Lead, with Beth Perry, Liz Richardson and Bryony Vince-Myers, of the Research England-funded Co-Production Futures Inquiry, a collective intelligence gathering exercise to mobilise change to address institutional barriers to co-produced and participatory research. The Inquiry is open to evidence until December 2026. Submit here.
Dr Beth Chitekwe-Biti is Executive Director of the Slum Dwellers International (SDI) Secretariat. SDI is a network of federations of the urban poor across Africa, Asia and Latin America. She is Director of Community Knowledge at the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC). Beth holds a PhD from the University of Manchester, where her research examined the impact of social movements on urbanisation and urban land policy. Her published work focuses on how organised communities of the urban poor co-produce urban change with the state. 
Read more! 
Outputs from the Co-Production Futures Inquiry
Getting our own house in order 
Evidence from across the UK higher education sector
Doubling Down Not Ducking Out: Why Co-Production of Research Matters Now
Visit the SDI Knowledge Hub
Read outputs from the African Cities Research Consortium
Underpinning research
Co-production as praxis: critique and engagement from within the university
Is co-production a ‘good’ concept? Three responses
Leadership and the hidden politics of co-produced research: a Q-methodology study
Jam and Justice: Co-producing Urban Governance
Realising Just Cities
Hosts:
Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, and CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium, 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. And to Sam Burgum, for post-production editing and promotion.

In this month's episode, Beth and Tom reflect on UN World Clean-up Day, inviting Deji Akinpelu (Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development (CHSD) University of Lagos), and Purva Dewoolkar (School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester) to share their work rethinking waste management and sanitation in Lagos and Mumbai.
'Cleaning up the city' is easier said than done - and can also be dangerous, depending on the nature of the waste. Waste management is central to the livelihoods of millions of people in cities around the world, as well as to food chains and questions of nutrition. Together they discuss how to manage different kinds of waste in an integrated way, the roles of different individuals and groups, including residents, waste pickers and local governments, and how waste connects to wider climate resilience actions and plans. 
Also on the radar:
Why do capital cities get moved, and will Uganda be moving its capital?
What do new UK sanctions on Israeli settlements mean for the two-state and ‘shared homeland’ solutions? And what is the potential role of cities?
What is the history of cities seceding from nation-states?
What are the positive and negative effects on the city of massive urban running events?
What are the implications of AI 'superintelligence' for cities and towns, according to different generations?
What’s in a name? With Trump renaming more geographies, does Tom know the former names of cities in Beth’s quiz? 
Guests: 
Deji Akinpelu is a documentary filmmaker, photographer and advocate for inclusive urban development whose practice documents architecture, heritage and everyday urbanism across Lagos and West Africa. He founded the Rethinking Cities Initiative (RCI) in 2017, following the forced eviction of the waterfront community at Otodo Gbame, and has since built a body of work that treats the recording of the city, its buildings, its cultural traditions and its threatened settlements, as an act of advocacy for their survival.Challenges and opportunities for inclusive water delivery in Lagos
Challenges and opportunities for inclusive water delivery in Lagos
Displaced: A City’s Scars
Purva Dewoolkar is Bicentenary Research Fellow in the School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester. Dewoolkar’s research integrates human geography, urban studies, critical development studies, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), collaborating with Mumbai's campaign for Universal Access to Water and Manchester's cultural institutions to develop care-centred, community-led approaches for documenting and understanding urban infrastructural struggles in the Global South, centring the lived experiences and vocabularies of resistance.
On shaky grounds: situating safe sanitation in Mumbai’s sub-surface legacies of waster
Habitation counter-stories: thinking from the autoconstructed basti-Cheeta Camp, Mumbai
Sewers and sewage treatment in Mumbai: Temporality, difference, competing universals and infrastructural entanglements.
Links
Sponsor Beth to raise money for War Child UK
Off the Shelf – Festival of Words, Sheffield 2026
Doubling Down Not Ducking Out: Why Co-production of Research Matters Now
References:
Jaim Yacobi and Omar Dajani - 'Shared Homeland Paradigm' ESRC project
Jane Jacobs - Cities and the Wealth of Nations
Charles Tilly - Cities and States in World History
Edensor & Larsen -  Rhythmanalysing marathon running
How to be an Anti-Capitalist City
David Robinson - The Intelligence Trap
Cugurullo et al - The Rise of AI Urbanism in Post-Smart Cities
The Conversation - ‘Gen Z is pushing back against AI’
Prerona Das - Smart Cities Beyond Methodological Cityism
Prince Guma - The Temporal Incompleteness of Infrastructure and the Urban
Gabriella Bennett -  How to Build a City

Hosts:
Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, and CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium, 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. And to Sam Burgum, for post-production editing and promotion.

In this month's episode, Beth and Tom mark World Indigenous Peoples' Day and the International Day of Youth with Dr Philipp Horn, School of Geography and Planning, University of Sheffield. Drawing on Philipp's work with Indigenous youth from the Bolivian cities of El Alto, Santa Cruz, Sucre and Rurrenabaque, they challenge stereotypes of indigenous lives, highlighting fluid geographies and mobilities between urban and rural areas. 
Together they discuss Indigenous claims to the city, how young Indigenous people navigate urban life and what indigenous epistemology and practice can offer urban studies.

Also on the radar

How strategic and local authorities are responding to the new guidance on what 'sex' means in the Equalities Act 2010
Why border cities are geopolitical flashpoints: a look at Ceuta in context
What feral cats in Seoul and dogs in Istanbul tell us about more-than-human urban development
How marine heatwaves impact coastal cities and communities
How population surges and shrinkages shape urban politics around the world
Whether urban glitches, like a solar eclipse, disrupt the 24-hour city

Guest: 
Philipp Horn is Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield, UK. His research focuses on Indigenous urbanism, youth rights, urban informality, and participatory planning in the global South, with a regional focus on Latin America. He has published numerous journal articles, books, book chapters and working papers, with recent work focusing on multilocal Indigenous lives, urban informality, and multi-modal collaborative research. Find out more about his work on these project websites:
Indigenous Development Alternatives, funded by the ESRC
Contested Territories, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 873082)
From the back catalogue:
Trans Rights and the City
Seeing the City
River/City

References:
Lessons from Ceuta, Myriam Cherti 
Beyond the Border, Alice Buoli
Open Call: Surfaces of War, Popular Intelligence in the Mediterranean
Yongsan Cats
Between Care and Violence: The Dogs of Istanbul
Ottoman History Podcast - Between Care and Violence: The Dogs of Istanbul | Mine Yıldırım | Free Listening on Podbean App
Call for Community Consultation: Journal of Southern Theorising
Hosts:
Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, and CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium, 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. And to Sam Burgum, for post-production editing and promotion.

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, and CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium, 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. And to Sam Burgum, for post-production editing and promotion.

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, and CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium, 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. And to Sam Burgum, for post-production editing and promotion.