Urbanism in the Global South: Building New Geographies of Development
University of Cambridge, UK
26 June 2017
The Conference
Alison Richard Building
University of Cambridge
26 June 2017
Cities continue to play a defining role in shaping the landscapes, capital and people of our world today. Urban theory and policy have long attempted to define, quantify and explain the practices of everyday urbanity, as well as citizens’ affect. Recent debates have forced a redefinition of ‘cityness’ and the agglomeration of the urban experience, especially in cities of the Global South. Ordinary cities have now come to contest the perceived dominance of global cities, where theorisation from the South seeks to deconstruct the hegemony of traditional urban epistemologies.
While critiques of area-based theorisation increase and ‘planetary urbanisation’ seeks to render Southern theory obsolete; the ‘worlding’ of cities has now come into force alongside calls to look at ‘global urbanisation’ as more than the sum of its parts.
Yet, in the face of international directives and Global Urban Agendas, cities of the South, have continually proven the necessity of localising interventions, countering blanket theorisations and creating innovative solutions from below. Cities such as Manila, Buenos Aires, and Johannesburg among others continually illustrate new forms of contention, governance and nature relationships that disavow accepted conceptualisations. As such, it seems imperative to understand organic trends of urbanism(s) that emerge from grounded empirical research.
This conference will thus bring together case studies, re-theorisations and snapshots of the urban experience designed to tackle pressing questions across Southern cities. These include- What are the new geographies of theory and development in these cities? How is the production of space realised by capitalist endeavours, networks of the marginalised and urban imaginaries? What forms of informal practices persist and co-produce new roles for the state and non-state actors? How are mobilisations disrupting the violent order of participation models?
Organising Committee
Convenors
Convenors
Officers
Academic Committee
Centre of Development Studies and
​Centre of Latin American Studies
University of Cambridge
Key note speaker
Jennifer Robinson
Professor of Human Geography at University College London
Debating Global Urbanisms: beyond the binaries in comparative urban politics
There has been a strong engagement with calls to globalise urban studies, with a range of different approaches emerging. This paper draws on a reformulated comparative methodology, oriented to the specific spatialities of urbanisation, in order to take forward current debates in global urbanism. Firstly, I take issue with some of the ways in which the fully theoretical contribution of post-colonial interventions has been undermined by contrasting wider processes, theorisations and concepts with supposedly a-theoretical or hybridising particularisms. I will insist that building understandings of the urban from somewhere, starting from any city or any urban process, is an explicitly theoretical manoeuvre which cannot be dismissed (or embraced) as a-conceptual. At the same time, insofar as comparative methodologies rest on the radical revisability of concepts, the status of wider theoretical claims about the urban, or urbanisation processes, is always in question. I argue that the project of decentring, or provincializing, urban studies and urban theory urgently requires that we move beyond emerging false binaries to cultivate cultures of theoretical debate which are open to diverse contributions to the field within the ambit of scholarly practices. Secondly, I explore how comparative tactics can provide a basis for instigating new and distinctive analyses of the urban which potentially speak to the challenges of urbanisation globally, even though their reach and ambition in the first instance might be located, modest and revisable. Analytical conversations across a diverse array of urban contexts serve to keep the nature of the urban in question, as well as to produce, revitalise and expand analytical registers. I will draw on examples here from a collaborative, comparative research project (Johannesburg, London and Shanghai) which seeks to disturb analytical segmentations across wealthier and poor contexts, put new kinds of insights emerging from these contexts into wider circulation and, in the process, destabilise key conventional repertoires of analysis. The shared work of recrafting concepts and producing urban theorizations fit for a global urban world awaits.
Agenda Conference brochure
9:00-9:20 Registration
9:20-9:30 Welcome Note
9:30-10:00 Keynote Speaker:
Debating Global Urbanisms: beyond the binaries in comparative urban politics
Professor Jennifer Robinson
Department of Geography, University College London –UCL-
10:00-11:15 Urban Theory and Practice- Deconstructing Uneven Epistemologies, Hegemony and Southern Re-interpretation
Chair: Dr Aseem Inam, Cardiff University
Whose narratives on urban change? Decolonising the New Urban Agenda: A view from the borderland
Giulia Torino, University of Cambridge
Are slum dwellers poor? Does it matter? Evidence from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Alexandra Panman, University of Oxford
Reimagining the process of urban transformation: A discourse analysis of the ‘smart city’ socio-technical imaginary in India
Bipashyee Ghosh, University of Sussex
11:15- 11:45 Coffee break
11:45-13:15 Informality, Urban Space and Neoliberalisation
Chair: Dr Maria Abreu/ Discussant: Dr Felipe Hernandez, University of Cambridge
Below the radar
Dr. Tanya Zack, University of Witwatersand
Selfies, Streets, Sidewalks : Honour and Public Space in Pakistan
Nayab Jan, London School of Economics and Political Science
Urban and social imaginary: An unfinished project of autonomy
Samir Harb, The University of Manchester
The impact of redevelopment of urban villages on migrant labourers in China
Yang Song, King’s College London
13:15-14:15 Lunch Break + Photo Exhibition
14:15-15:30 Rethinking Urban and Regional Governance: The expanding role of state and non-state actors in cities of the Global South
Chair: Dr Graham Denyer Willis, University of Cambridge
Land in Lahore: Accumulation by Juridical Dispossession in LDA City
Aisha Ahmad, University of Oxford
Shadow Cities: Political Power and Urban Planning in Luanda, Angola
Claudia Gastrow, University of Johannesburg
Are 'Company Towns' Cities?: The Political Geography of CSR in India, Kenya and South Africa
Maha Rafi Atal, University of Cambridge
15:30- 15:45 Coffee break
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15:45-17:15 “Partici-polis”*- Cities, Contestation and Citizenship
Chair: Dr Charlotte Lemanski, University of Cambridge
Insurgent Planning Practices and Normative Frameworks: The Case of Area C of West Bank and the New Urban Agenda
Dr. Ahmad El-Atrash, UNHabitat Palestine
The political opportunities of urban decentralisation: mobilising local governance in Buenos Aires
Dr. Sam Halvorsen, University of Cambridge
Whose Freedom Park? The ongoing struggle for an urban commons in Cambodia.
Michael Reiche, Bauhaus-Universitat Weimar
Urban Collectives and Local Government in the Renewal of an Emblematic Square: The Case of Largo da Batata in São Paulo, Brazil
Pauline Niesseron, London School of Economics and Political Science
17:15-17:30 Closing Remarks
Call for papers/photo essays
The conference is composed of several panels throughout the day, as well as a Photo-essays exhibition and competition, based on the following overarching themes. Submissions are welcome to address one or more suggested themes and other interlinked issues. Those who wish to present their work are required to submit their paper or photo-essay abstracts on or before April 17th using the following link:
https://goo.gl/forms/yAEI7mg5Ok6oRspz2
A limited number of subsidised travel expenses will be provided to presenters. Doctoral candidates and early career researchers are strongly encouraged to apply. Applicants will be notified by May 10th of acceptance/rejection and travel subsidies awards. There is a limit of one submission per person.
Abstracts will be reviewed by an academic committee of peers and expert urban lecturers. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper for a potential publication of a special issue or edited volume. For more information please contact the UGS convenors on: camglobalsouthconference2017@gmail.com
How to find the venue?
Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DT.
We can be reached in ten minutes on foot from the centre of town (King's Parade). Nearby landmarks are the Universitylibrary and the 'Backs', which are the gardens and parks running along the Cam at the back of the colleges.
By Car
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From Junction 12 of the M11
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Drive for approx 1.5 miles into Cambridge (Barton Road)
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Turn left into Grange Road
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Turn 3rd right opposite the Rugby Club (West Road)
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The Alison Richard Building is located towards the end of West Road, on the right hand side
By Train
Trains run regularly to Cambridge from both London King’s Cross and London Liverpool Street. If you are coming from the North, it is advisable to change at Peterborough. West Road is a 10 to 15 minute taxi ride from the railway station.
Park and Ride
Cambridgeshire County Council run a 'Park & Ride' service from Madingley Road, just off Junction 13 of the M11 to the West of Cambridge. Take the Uni 4 bus (which runs from Monday to Friday) and alight at the stop entitled 'West Road University Library', which is opposite the Alison Richard Building.
Parking
We do not have dedicated parking for patrons, however, you may find the following helpful:
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Pay & display parking on West Road: current charge is 20p per 10mins Monday-Saturday, 9am-5pm; free after 5pm and on Sundays; blue badge holders free.
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2 bays for blue badge holders are available on the Sidgwick Site.
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The nearest unregulated streets are Herschel, Adams and Cranmer Roads.
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If you are a speaker at a seminar or are visiting by invitation, a parking permit is available on request.