URBLOG

In Britain's dockland mirror, China is sailing into view

Tristram Hunt in The Guardian

Emblems first of empire, then post-industrial drift and rampant capitalism, London's docks are now in hock to a new power. [...] This unbecoming location on the Isle of Dogs has always told us a broader truth about the condition of Britain. In the Victorian era, the docks symbolised the prosperity and progress of empire.

Canary Wharf, an icon of modern capitalism, is now a totem of state-funded corporatism. The docks that once played host to the British empire and housed the finance titans of US imperialism are now in hock to a new power rising in the east.

LSE Autumn Public Lectures

Events open to the LSE community and the public

 

Tuesday 6 October, 6.30-8pm

Bringing the Penal State Back In

SPEAKER: Professor Loïc Wacquant

 

Monday 19 October, 6.30-8pm

Beijing Inside Out: Caochangdi

SPEAKERS: Robert Mangurian, Mary-Ann Ray

 

Tuesday 10 November, 6.30-8pm

 The First Legacy Games: the physical and

socio-economic transformation of East London

SPEAKERS: Andrew Altman, Councillor Paul Brickell,  Ricky Burdett

 

Tuesday 17 November, 6.30-8pmC

Cities, Design and Climate Change

SPEAKERS: Professor Saskia Sassen, Professor Richard Sennett

Right to the City conference papers published

Most of the papers from the 'Right to the City' conference (Berlin, 6-8 November 2008) have been published in a special double issue of the journal CITY: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action .

This special issue of CITY (volume 13, issues 2-3) explores the theme ‘Cities for people, not profit’ through wide-ranging contributions by a diverse group of European and North American urban theorists, sociologists, planners and activists.

You can view the Editorial, Introduction and Tom Slater's paper on 'Missing Marcuse: On gentrification and displacement' for FREE online.

 

Castells at LSE

Event: Communication Power
Speaker: Professor Manuel Castells
Date: Thursday 9 July 2009, 6.30pm

This event marks the launch of Manuel Castells latest book, Communication Power. In this wide-ranging and powerful book, Castells analyses the transformation of the global media industry by the revolution in communication technologies.
Ticket release date: Tuesday 30 June, 10am

Further information about the events and how to request a ticket can be found online.

Florida on how recession might reshape urban america

Richard Florida: How the crash will reshape America

The economic crash has damaged some places much more severely than others. On the other side of the crisis, America’s economic landscape will look very different than it does today. What fate will the coming years hold for New York, Charlotte, Detroit, Las Vegas? Will the suburbs be ineffably changed? Which cities and regions can come back strong? And which will never come back at all?

Recession opens possibility for community land

Common ground

The recession is shifting attitudes about land ownership, making it easier for local people to club together to buy sites - from inner London to rural Devon.

Practitioners  argue that urban neighbourhoods and villages around the country are crying out for new, equitable forms of land ownership - dictated by need, rather than by greed - to deliver affordable homes, new businesses and community facilities that are no longer at the mercy of markets.

Community Land Trusts a resource to assist you develop community land trust solutions for affordable housing, amenity and workspace in Britain.

Jenkins on Dubai (and Detroit)

As they did Ozymandias, the dunes will reclaim the soaring folly of Dubai

Hovering over Dubai is a cloud called nemesis.

"I can only imagine that Dubai will one day be seen as a punctuation mark on the architectural follies of the past half century. This off-the-shelf city state has been built on laundering the profits of oil, drugs, arms and western aid."

The Corrosion of Character

Monday 30 March, 7pm
Hall One, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU

In the third and final part of The Guardian: Capitalism in Crisis  series, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the sociologist Richard Sennett discuss whether a devotion to the free-market model has weakened community ties, created a moral vacuum and left us more vulnerable to the recession.

Tickets: £11.50 (£9.50 online)
Available from the Kings Place box office on 020 7520 1490 or visit kingsplace.co.uk/spoken-word/words-on-monday/guardian-debate-part-three

Ethics, Economics and Global Justice

In a lecture given in Cardiff, the Archbishop of Canterbury calls for patience and trust to be re-established in economic processes, and for governments to resist the lure of protectionism which prejudices the growth of developing economies.

"....we need to move away from a model of economics which simply assumes that it is essentially about the mechanics of generating money, and try to restore an acknowledgement of the role of trust as something which needs time to develop; and so also to move away from an idea of wealth or profit which imagines that they can be achieved without risk, and to return to the primitive capitalist idea, as sketched above, of risk-sharing as an essential element in the equitable securing of wealth for all."

A call for a new socialism

Rowan Williams is right to be concerned, but by building a fairer political community can we develop a just economy. Jon Cruddas and Jonathan Rutherford

Regeneration in a time of recession

Professor Michael Parkinson's report The Credit Crunch and Regeneration: Impact and Implications   for the Department for Communities and Local Government.

"Many communities that have experienced difficult times for many years have been badly hit by the downturn. It is crucial that everything is done to protect the plans that were made for those communities. Many regeneration agencies are concerned about breaking moral commitments to communities if they cannot deliver agreed projects."

Site Savers

Stalled plans to revive rundown town centres illustrate how the property slump and credit crunch have hit regeneration. But is there a solution?

Britain can build its way out of recession

"With thousands of jobs disappearing each week in Britain, and the lingering potential for unrest, it is time for our government to be similarly bold and ambitious in the one area that could show relatively quick social, economic and environmental returns. "Getting Britain Building" is not a bad slogan. "