Urban Radar

• Radar 10: GREEN RESURGENCE & GAZA RECONSTRUCTION (+Brexit, +rats, +Louvre heist, +AI Friend and more)

  Released to coincide with World Cities Day on 31 October, this episode sees Beth and Tom first joined by Prof. Matthew Flinders (26:09) to discuss what the rise in fortunes of the Green Party, UK, under Zack Polanski, means for progressive politics in the UK, and for a city like Sheffield. Then, with Said Zaaneen (51:46), they dive into what the history of refugee camps in the Gaza strip tells us about the role of international humanitarian aid, and consider implications for future reconstruction. Also on our radar:The ongoing impacts of Brexit on Northern citiesRats and multi-species urban lifeUrbanisation, colonisation, colonialism & outer spaceCable cars, white elephants and Gen Z protests in MadagascarThe Louvre heist & the material fabric of the cityWhy New Yorkers are not friends with AI FriendGuests:Matthew Flinders is Professor of Politics, Vice-President of the Political Studies Association and Chair of the Universities Policy Engagement Network. A former special advisor in both the House of Lords and House of Commons, he specialises in theoretically-informed policy-relevant research including on accountability, blame and democracy. Said Zaaneen is in the final stages of his PhD here at the University of Sheffield on Humanitarian aid, socio-spatial dynamics, and the evolution of refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, focusing particularly on two specific camps in Gaza - Jabalia and Deir Al Balah. Said also has an MSc in Management and Implementation of Development Projects from the University of Manchester, and prior to his PhD had more than 10 years experience working in humanitarian and development projects in the Gaza Strip.Read More:Madagascar protests: how ousted president Andry Rajoelina’s urban agenda backfiredDecolonial Museology, Space Travel and the Mineral Cabinet | Museum & SocietyHosts: Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Studies and International Development in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield. 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. 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. If you want to know more about the research featured in this podcast, follow Sheffield Urbanism on LinkedIn, or bluesky, Instagram or visit www.sheffield.ac.uk/urban-institute Email feedback to: [email protected] Thanks to the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Sheffield for funding this podcast and the Creative Media Suite for recording facilities.

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• Feature 9: HUMANITY'S URBAN FUTURE - A conversation with AbdouMaliq Simone and Ash Amin

  In this month’s feature Tom and Beth are joined by two leading scholars of the urban condition - Ash Amin and AbdouMaliq Simone - to reflect on questions of inclusion and belonging in the search for the 'good city'. Building on their collaborative work for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research's Humanity's Urban Future programme, our guests consider: Are ideas of the good city still relevant in face of worsening inequality, segregation and individualism?Can a progressive politics of belonging overcome these divisions in a renewed urban public sphere? And, as Black History Month draws to an end, how might ideas of ‘black urbanism’ inform and enrich the field of urban studies?GuestsAbdouMaliq Simone works on issues of spatial composition in extended urban regions, the production of everyday life for urban majorities in the Global South, infrastructural imaginaries, collective affect, global blackness, and histories of the present for Muslim working classes. He is Professor Emeritus at the Urban Institute (University of Sheffield) and co-director of the Beyond Inhabitation Lab, Polytechnic University of Turin. In this episode he draws on themes explored in his work including The Surrounds: Urban Life within and beyond Capture and Improvised Lives. Professor Amin (University of Cambridge) is known for his work on the geographies of modern living: cities and regions as relationally constituted; globalisation, race and multiculture as a hybrid of biopolitics, and vernacular practices. He was founding co-editor of the Review of International Political Economy, is associate editor of City and is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences.  In this episode we discuss his recent book After Nativism: Belonging in an Age of Intolerance and refer back to previous work including Seeing Like a City.Hosts: Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Studies and International Development in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield. 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. 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. If you want to know more about the research featured in this podcast, follow Sheffield Urbanism on LinkedIn, or bluesky, Instagram or visit www.sheffield.ac.uk/urban-institute Email feedback to: [email protected] Thanks to the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Sheffield for funding this podcast and the Creative Media Suite for recording facilities.

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• Radar 9: CONFLICT & URBAN TERRITORY - FROM UK HOMELESSNESS TO UPRISING IN NEPAL (+West Bank settlements, +witchcraft, +cars and more)

  This month we are joined by Dr Sam Burgum & Professor Simon Rushton to dive into what the new UK Minister for Homelessness should have on their agenda (27:50) and how we can understand the wider socio-economic issues shaping the recent Gen Z uprising in Nepal (50:08). Cutting across our discussions are questions of conflict over and in urban territory, federalism and decentralisation and how best to meet basic needs - such as shelter, health or security at the local (and national) level.Also on our radar:What does the new US-UK tech partnership mean for regional inequalities, and how might this be regulated?The implications of extended settlements or 'outposts' in the West BankThe urban dynamics of witchcraft What 'Your Party' could learn from New MunicipalismCities for cars not people? (and the masculinity of urban planning)Who is left to report on local democracy and conflict? The global crisis in press freedomGuests:Sam Burgum is a Visiting Researcher at the Urban Institute and works on homelessness, property and trespass. He has written about squatting in London, the city as archive, and the importance of a historical understanding of property ownership and who has the right to urban space.Simon Rushton is Professor of International Politics in the School of Politics, Sociology and International Relations, working across issues including healthcare in Nepal and peace in Colombia. One recent co-authored book is Participating in Peace with a range of colleagues, and collaborated with CORMEPAZ, Plataforma IAP and PHASE Nepal.Read More:Corbyn's MomentumBeyond the local trapBecoming common of the publicRoadkillHosts: Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Studies and International Development in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield. 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. 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. If you want to know more about the research featured in this podcast, follow Sheffield Urbanism on LinkedIn, or bluesky, Instagram or visit www.sheffield.ac.uk/urban-institute Email feedback to: [email protected] Thanks to the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Sheffield for funding this podcast and the Creative Media Suite for recording facilities.

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• Feature 8: URBAN INFORMALITY AND TRANSLOCAL LEARNING - A conversation with Melanie Lombard and Diana Mitlin

  In this month's episode Tom and Beth discuss the value of translocal learning to address poverty and inequality for women in low income communities in India, Southern Africa, Kenya and the UK. Joined by guests Melanie Lombard and Diana Mitlin, they ask:What can we learn from informal processes and practices in South Asian and African cities to address social injustice and poverty here in the UK?What kinds of trans-national networks can support this work and how do they build solidarities amongst and within low income communities?What does this mean for the roles of academics in realising more just cities?Guests:Dr Melanie Lombard is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning and Urban Institute Associate at the University of Sheffield. She is particularly interested in urban informality, and urban land and conflict processes. She has explored these themes in cities in Mexico, Colombia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria. Before moving to the University of Sheffield in 2016, she taught at the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute/Global Urban Research Centre (2010-2016). Her previous professional experience includes working in the UK social housing sector. She is a Trustee of CLASS (Community Led Action and Savings Support), a charity supporting the Manchester-based Community Savers network.Professor Diana Mitlin works in the Global Development Institute | The University of Manchester. From 2020, Diana has been CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium. Diana’s work focuses on urban poverty reduction programmes and the contribution of co-production and collective action by low-income and otherwise disadvantaged groups. She has had a particular research focus on issues of urban basic services, tenure and housing.  Diana works closely with SDI (Slum/Shack Dwellers International), a trans-national network of homeless and landless people’s federations and NGOs.Hosts: Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Studies and International Development in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield. 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. 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. If you want to know more about the research featured in this podcast, follow Sheffield Urbanism on LinkedIn, or bluesky, Instagram or visit www.sheffield.ac.uk/urban-institute Email feedback to: [email protected] Thanks to the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Sheffield for funding this podcast and the Creative Media Suite for recording facilities.

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• Radar 8: SCHOOLING AND SURVIVING IN ENGLAND AND SUDAN (+policing/protests, +flags/fakes, +mining and cities on the move)

  This month we are joined by Drs Christina Tatham & Cathy Wilcock for a post-summer bumper episode. First in England, many children are starting school for the first time, including those with English as a second language, against a backdrop of stubborn spatial inequalities in educational outcomes later in life (31:26). Then, in the face of civil war and conflict in Sudan, we dive into how urban communities in and beyond national borders are finding ways to build resilience and retain diaspora identities (52:20).  And on our radar:Labubus & counterfeits in the cityLocal variations in policing protestsUrban mining over time Trump's 'take over' of Washington DCThe symbolism of flags & roundabouts How cities might survive the loss of their physical territoryGuests:Dr Christina Tatham is a Lecturer in Early Childhood Education and has written widely on superdiversity and multilingualism in schools, including the use of creative methodologies and the importance of play.Dr Cathy Wilcock is a post-doctoral researcher in the School of Geography and Planning whose work has focussed on Sudan, South Sudan and the formation and importance of diaspora communities, and music scenes.  More:The Pirate FunctionCities RethoughtDespite what The Atlantic says, Sudan is not locked in a war about nothingHosts: Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Studies and International Development in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield. 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. 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. If you want to know more about the research featured in this podcast, follow Sheffield Urbanism on LinkedIn, or bluesky, Instagram or visit www.sheffield.ac.uk/urban-institute Email feedback to: [email protected] Thanks to the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Sheffield for funding this podcast and the Creative Media Suite for recording facilities.

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