David Harvey at LSE Thursday 10th May
Harvey explores the contemporary reality of cities as the arenas for revolutionary politics. To what extent can current movements be described as 'calss struggle'? How do these movements draw on 'right to the city' discourse in thier attempts to tranform societies as well as the streets?
See also
'For Harvey, the left must be modern and urban or it will remain powerless.'
The Riots Communities and Victims Panel’s final report was published on 28 March 2012. This sets out the final findings and recommendations for action to help prevent future riots.
The wide ranging issues and recommendations tackled in the Panel-s final report include:
From voting to violence? Far right extremism in Britain by Matthew Goodwin and Jocelyn Evans.
This groundbreaking study looks into who supports the far right in Britain, and why, and their attitudes towards violence and disorder.
See alos
Congratulations to the Hope not Hate Team on their new publication. Thjis will become essential reading for those concerned with the rise of racism and the far-right.
"The HOPE not hate magazine contains exposes and investigations of hate groups with more positive stories about how communities are coming together. In our first issue we reveal the secret rich backers of the BNP - many of whom choose not to be party members precisely because they want their identities to remain hidden."
Rioting is the choice of young people with nothing to lose
The Archbishop of Canterbury writes in response to the Guardian's Reading the Riots report.
“England risks a repeat” of the summer riots “unless the government and civil society do more to ‘rescue those who think they have nothing to lose’”.
'To ask if the riots were "political" or "opportunistic" is pointless. These are not people who live complacently in a culture of entitlement, nor are they, for the most part, committed criminals. Neither are they heroes of democratic protest, Britain's answer to Tahrir Square. They are people who have vague but strong longings for something like secure employment, and no idea where to look for it; who on the whole want to belong, and live in a climate where they are taken seriously as workers, as citizens – and as needy individuals; and who have got used to being pushed to the margins and told that they are dispensable.'
'How do we as a society back up good lessons in the home and show that we corporately want what a good family wants – mutual attention and affirmation, stability and emotional literacy, a sense of value that doesn't depend on accessories?'
'Demonising volatile and destructive young people doesn't help; criminalising them wholesale reinforces a lot of what produces the problem in the first place.'
The project collected more than 1.3m words of first-person accounts from rioters, giving an unprecedented insight into what drove people to participate in England's most serious bout of civil unrest in a generation. Rioters revealed that a complex mix of grievances brought them on to the streets but analysts appointed by the LSE identified distrust and antipathy toward police as a key driving force.
NatCen who conducted interviews and focus groups with young people, business owners, youth workers and community leaders in affected and non-affected areas, speaking both to those directly involved and those who chose not to be.
5 Days in August -Riots Communities and Victims Panel Interim Report
There was no single cause of the riots and there is no single solution. This report is intended to prompt discussion about every aspect of the riots. It will generate ideas from which we will develop recommendations which will appear in our final report. We hope everyone who reads this report will want to work with us to develop proposals to address the fundamental challenges we face as a society.
Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation explores white working-class views on community cohesion and the impact of social change.
Community cohesion has been influential in shaping government policy since the 2001 disturbances in Burnley, Oldham and Bradford. During this period, few studies have assessed the contribution of white working-class communities to cohesion.
"When there are academic and policy discussions on race and cohesion, the views of white working class communities seem to be pretty low on the agenda. How can this be right? I grew up in an area like this, and I think the people who live there deserve better.
At worst, a range of stereotypes most of us are very familiar with have reduced them to a cultural laughing stock. Mocked as being stupid, living in sink estates and gullible supporters of the extreme right, they appear to be have been ignored by policy makers, politicians and researchers. At best they appear to be a hidden group that have not merited serious research."
Article by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, published in The Financial Times.
The Church of England and the Church Universal have a proper interest in the ethics of the financial world and in the question of whether our financial practices serve those who need to be served – or have simply become idols that themselves demand uncritical service.
Urbanized is a feature-length documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.
Who is allowed to shape our cities, and how do they do it? Unlike many other fields of design, cities aren’t created by any one specialist or expert. There are many contributors to urban change, including ordinary citizens who can have a great impact improving the cities in which they live. By exploring a diverse range of urban design projects around the world, Urbanized frames a global discussion on the future of cities.
October 21
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, London School of Economics
6:30pm. Special Screening and post-film discussion with director Gary Hustwit and cast members Ricky Burdett (LSE Cities/Urban Age), Alejandro Aravena (architect, Elemental) and more TBA.
David Harvey: Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution
REBEL CITIES places the city at the heart of both capital and class struggles
Marcuse, Brenner & Mayer: Cities for People, Not for Profit: Critical Urban Theory and the Right to the City
An important volume promoting alternative, radically democratic and sustainable forms of urbanism.
Kunkel & Mayer: Neoliberal Urbanism and its Contestations: Crossing Theoretical Boundaries
This volume brings a plurality of approaches – from political economic/regulationist to Foucauldian governmentality and post-operatist subject theories – to bear on the broad range of contestations around urban neoliberalism.
Neoliberal Urbanism and its Contestations: Crossing Theoretical Boundaries
Matthew Gandy ed.: Urban Constellations
This collection explores themes such as new forms of political mobilisation, the effects of economic instability, the political ecology of urban nature and the presence of collective memory.
Mark R Gornik: Word Made Global: Stories of African Christianity in New York City
An insightful and prescient portrait of the emerging face of Christianity as it enters its third millennium.
Gareth Millington: 'Race', Culture and the Right to the City: Centres, Peripheries, Margins
Linking debates in 'racial' and ethnic studies to wider concerns with the city and urbanism.
Atherton, Baker & Reader: Christianity and the New Social Order: A Manifesto for a Fairer Future
Is Britain a broken society? Three contributors tackle the question in this easy-to-read manifesto aimed at the Church, public sphere and academia. They examine the values and direction of British/Western society in view of current political, economic and civil debates, and propose a new Christian agenda for change.
Baker & Beaumont eds: Postsecular Cities: Religious Space, Theory and Practice (Continuum Resources in Religion and Political Culture)
Rapidly diversifying urban locations are the best places to witness the emergence of new spaces in which religions and spiritual traditions are creating both new alliances but also bifurcations with secular sectors.
G. Myers & M.Murray: Cities in Contemporary Africa
Explains how and why cities on the African continent have grown at such a rapid pace, and how long-time urban residents and new-comers interact, negotiate, and struggle over access to limited resources through religion, culture and politics.
Garth Myers: African Cities: Alternative Visions of Urban Theory and Practice
Engages with the vibrancy and complexity of African cities with fresh eyes
Mendieta and Butler: The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere (Columbia / SSRC Book)
a rare opportunity to experience a diverse group of preeminent philosophers confronting one all-encompassing contemporary concern: what role does or shouldreligion play in our public lives?
David W Smith: Seeking a City with Foundations
Outlines key urban trajectories alongside theological and biblical themes to develop a new vision for urban mission.
Edward Glaeser: Triumph of the City
Triumph of the free market?
Daniel Dorling: Bankrupt Britain: An Atlas of Social Change
a unique atlas giving a comprehensive picture of the effect of the recession on Britain
Laurence Smith: The New North: The World in 2050
The world in 2050 will be radically different from today; Northern countries – notably Canada, Russia and Scandinavia – will rise at the expense of southern ones.
Ricky Burdett: Living in the Endless City
This book will give the reader access to a wealth of ideas and data about Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Istanbul and, by extension, urban life across the globe.
Danny Dorling: So You Think You Know About Britain?
Exploring the key issues that make the headlines Dorling will change the way you think about the country and explain just why you should feel positive about the future.
Michael Symmons Roberts & Paul Farley: Edgelands
A book about the blank spaces on the A-Z, the hinterlands of Britain that are not urban and not yet country: the lost, the liminal and the unloved.
Nigel Copsey (ed): British National Party: Contemporary Perspectives
Recent developments in the far right in Britain, are covered by a range of commentators with a particular focus on the British National Party (BNP).
Claire Freeman: Children and their Urban Environment: Changing Worlds
The book seeks to embrace childhood as a time of freedom, social engagement and environmental adventure and to encourage creation of environments that better meet the needs of children. The authors argue that in doing so, we will build more sustainable neighbourhoods, cities and societies for the future.
Tim Butler: Ethnicity, Class and Aspiration: Understanding London's New East End
a compelling analysis of the importance of aspirations and education in understanding social class and ethnicity in contemporary Britain.
Wesley Howard-Brook: Come Out My People!: God's Call Out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond
A remarkable offering for those who care about the interface of power and faith . . . . I could not put it down, and expect to continue to be instructed by it. --Walter Brueggemann
Nezar AlSayyad: The Fundamentalist City?: Religiosity and the Remaking of Urban Space
This book attempts to establish a relationship between two important phenomena: the historic transition of the majority of the world’s population from a rural to an urban existence; and the robust resurgence of religion as a major force in the shaping of contemporary life in many parts of the world.
Simon Parker: Cities, Politics and Power (Routledge Critical Introductions to Urbanism and the City)
combines a concern with how the cities in which we live are organised and run with a broader focus on cities and urban regions as multiple sites and agents of power.
Susan Fainstein: The Just City
Fainstein draws on the work of John Rawls, Martha Nussbaum, Iris Marion Young, Nancy Fraser, and others to develop an approach to justice relevant to twenty-first-century cities.
Owen Hatherley: A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain
Hatherley maps the derelict Britain of the 2010s
Andrew Walker: Discovering the Spirit in the City
a wide-ranging exploration of the practical applications of spirituality in an urban environment.
