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News, events and blog

New SDG Policy Brief Published

We've just published a Policy Brief on localising the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This stems from the work we did in partnership with UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development, which involved convening a residential workshop for various UK and international cities.

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The Realising Just Cities 2019 Annual Conference: Lessons, Impacts and Outcomes

Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - 09:00 to 18:00

The rapidly growing number of people moving into cities all over the world presents a challenge of unprecedented size. It is crucial to find ways to make urbanisation a source for wealth, health and sustainability – which is shared. Mistra Urban Futures arranges Annual Conferences about Realising Just Cities, which are hosted at our research platforms.

 

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Cultural Heritage and Sacred Sites in Kisumu: Inception Meetings

By Vicky Habermehl, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield 

In April 2019 the inception meetings for the project started with a series of visits across the Kisumu region. These were organised with communities in different cultural heritage and sacred sites. At each meeting organisers, communities or elders took the group around the site and discussed the key concerns, and organising strategies, as well as future plans. This provided a context for cultural heritage in the area, as well as meeting potential research partners and allowing for broader understandings of different cultural heritage challenges across the region.

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Narratives of Cultural Heritage in Kisumu: Reflections on a Workshop

By Beth Perry, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield 

The baking Kisumu heat on a Friday afternoon was not enough to deter people from attending our first stakeholder meeting in Kisumu, on 5 April 2019. Held at KLIP House in central Kisumu, it was standing room only as 46 people joined for a collaborative workshop to map different understandings and meanings of cultural heritage.

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From managerial to collaborative methods

During a visit to Gothenburg in March 2019, the Jam and Justice delegation held three workshops with officers from Gothenburg City Council and Gothenburg Region Assocation of Local Authorities. In this 6th post from the translocal learning series, Jam and Justice ARC member Adrian Ball reflects how preparing to speak in Gothenburg prompted him to appreciate the ways the project had influenced his day job.

Adrian writes:

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African Centre for Cities Seminar

Wednesday, April 10, 2019 - 12:00 to 13:00
University of Cape Town, African Centre for Cities

Dr Rike Sitas, from the African Centre for Cities, will present the Whose Heritage Matters project during a 'brown bag' seminar at the University of Cape Town, followed by a discussion with scholars at the University, practitioners and city officials.  

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Stakeholder Inception Meeting Kisumu

Stakeholder Meeting, Kisumu

Friday, April 5, 2019 - 14:00 to 17:00
KLIP House, Kisumu

In April, during the set up visit in Kisumu, a stakeholder inception workshop will take place to enrol local organisations, officials and community based organisations into the project. 

The workshop will take place at KLIP House, in Central Kisumu.

  • Read more about Stakeholder Meeting, Kisumu

On changing the world: learning and reflections from Gothenburg visit

For post five in our Trans-local Learning mini-series, Fiona Bottrill, Justice and Engagement Programme Manager in West Midlands Combined Authority, reflects on her experience visiting Gothenburg Region. Fiona writes:

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People, Places, Policies, Practices: Whose Heritage Matters in Cape Town

By Rike Sitas, African Centre for Cities 

The potential of art, culture and heritage in shaping our cities has captured the imagination of artists, officials, developers and activists alike. Heritage has found its place in local and global policies, in urban plans, in precinct development, in the visual and performing arts, in tourism and heritage-based place making. Although there is a general agreement that heritage is important, what this means is less clear. In particular, how this lands in different contexts can run the risk of creating or exacerbating existing tensions.

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Co-Production: Working with Local Democracy

In this fourth post for our Trans-local Learning mini-series, GMCA officer Anne Lythgoe reflects on a visit to Gothenburg Region.

Co-production: working with local democracy

Co-production is a way of designing and delivering public services in a more democratic fashion, giving citizens control over the day-to-day decisions which affect their lives. [source]

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From Greater Manchester to Barcelona and back again: lessons on co-production and digital democracy

To exemplify co-productive design principles means challenging the idea of an ‘end-user’ who receives a final report. It means rethinking what impact looks like and how it can be achieved. Our commitment is to engage decision-makers in a collaborative learning journey through informal spaces for exchange and international networking.  Trans-local learning is an important element in opening up spaces for learning and dissemination often reserved for academics to urban decision-makers.  Trans-localism is more than just cities learning from each other across national boundaries. It points to the need for meaningful interactions between networked individuals and groups of similarly thinking people beyond the local. What is at stake is a sense of belonging through shared perspectives and concerns that transcend local boundaries. 

In this third blog for our Trans-local Learning mini-series, Action Research Collective member Alice Toomer McAlpine reflects on her experience at the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy in Barcelona in November 2018.

  • Read more about From Greater Manchester to Barcelona and back again: lessons on co-production and digital democracy

How to Co-produce the City: In No Easy Steps

To exemplify co-productive design principles means challenging the idea of an ‘end-user’ who receives a final report. It means rethinking what impact looks like and how it can be achieved. Our commitment is to engage decision-makers in a collaborative learning journey through informal spaces for exchange and international networking.  Trans-local learning is an important element in opening up spaces for learning and dissemination often reserved for academics to urban decision-makers.  Trans-localism is more than just cities learning from each other across national boundaries. It points to the need for meaningful interactions between networked individuals and groups of similarly thinking people beyond the local. What is at stake is a sense of belonging through shared perspectives and concerns that transcend local boundaries. 

In this second blog for our Trans-local Learning mini-series, guests David Rogerson and Jacob Botham from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority reflect on their experience at the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy in Barcelona in November 2018.

  • Read more about How to Co-produce the City: In No Easy Steps

"There's no co-production panacea"

To exemplify co-productive design principles means challenging the idea of an ‘end-user’ who receives a final report. It means rethinking what impact looks like and how it can be achieved. Our commitment is to engage decision-makers in a collaborative learning journey through informal spaces for exchange and international networking.  Trans-local learning is an important element in opening up spaces for learning and dissemination often reserved for academics to urban decision-makers . Trans-localism is more than just cities learning from each other across national boundaries. It points to the need for meaningful interactions between networked individuals and groups of similarly thinking people beyond the local. What is at stake is a sense of belonging through shared perspectives and concerns that transcend local boundaries. 

In this blog for our Trans-local Learning mini-series, guests David Rogerson and Nick Fairclough from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority reflect on their experience at the Mistra Urban Futures Annual Conference in Cape Town.

  • Read more about "There's no co-production panacea"
View of Cape Town

Mistra Urban Futures Conference 2018, Cape Town

‘Comparative Co-production’ was the theme of the 2018 Mistra Urban Futures conference in Cape Town earlier this month, which was attended by members of the Urban Institute’s Realising Just Cities team.

 

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Comparing perspectives on urban food: debates and site visits at the 2018 Realising Just Cities conference in Cape Town

Authors: Charlie Spring & Nick Taylor Buck, 21st November 2018

A panel of researchers, practitioners and city policy-makers from South Africa, Sweden, Kenya and the UK shared perspectives on urban food system challenges and change at Mistra Urban Futures’ recent ‘Comparative Co-production’ conference. Comparing across global north and south contexts, however blurred that dichotomy, is always challenging, so panellists were asked to respond to a series of questions designed to tease out commonalities and differences between our diverse city homes. 

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Project Set Up: Unsettling Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Livelihoods

By Beth Perry, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield

The 'Whose Heritage Matters?' project had its first project meeting and formal launch in Cape Town in November 2018.

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Realising Just Cities conference logo, superimposed on an image of Cape Town, South Africa

International learning with Realising Just Cities

The Realising Just Cities programme is supporting peer learning visits to Cape Town and Barcelona for public sector strategists and community practitioners from Greater Manchester, to expand their knowledge of co-productive practices and participatory democracy in other urban settings. 

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Greater Manchester - Scotland Peer Learning Exchange

The Action Research Collective, part of the Jam and Justice project, has just returned from a peer exchange in Glasgow hosted by our Scottish partner, Dr. Oliver Escobar, University of Edinburgh, What Works Scotland Co-Director. The aim of the visit was two-fold:

  • Read more about Greater Manchester - Scotland Peer Learning Exchange

Our Projects

All our projects seek to contribute to realising just cities through developing more participatory processes, valuing citizens knowledges and supporting fairer outcomes for different groups.

Culture Heritage and Citizenship

How can we value everyday understandings of place, culture and heritage? These projects support citizens’ own understandings of the value of formal and informal cultural practices, memories and meanings of place.

Democracy and Engagement

How can decision-making processes be redesigned to include more voices and place citizens at the heart of policy-making? These projects directly seek to support more inclusive and co-productive governance within city-regions.

International Collaborations

This cluster of projects highlights those that specifically involve international partners across the Mistra Urban Futures network and beyond.

Local Management and Organisations

What are the changing roles and relationships between different organisations involved in the governance of city-regions? These projects have a specific focus on the roles of institutions as change agents in realising just cities, including local government, universities, partnership bodies, trade unions and third section organisations.

Neighbourhoods and Communities

How can we empower neighbourhoods and communities to develop their own capacities for social and economic change? These projects all have a strong focus on spatial and social justice through working at the neighbourhood scale.

Planning and Environment

How can citizens be involved in complex topics such as climate change, environment and planning? These projects seek to understand and map how different kinds of expertise can inform spatial planning and environmental strategy development and implementation.

Economy and Entrepreneurship

How can we support alternative economic practices and social entrepreneurship? These projects have a specific focus on spending decisions and new forms of economic organising.

Digital Tools and Techniques

To what extent can digital technologies support citizen participation, or do they create new forms of exclusion? These projects include a consideration of the role and value of digital platforms, tools and techniques in enhancing democratic engagement.

Methods and Practices

What methods and practices are needed to support transformative urban research? These projects have a specific focus on innovative methodologies, methods and mindsets, to test and learn about what works to support coproductive research and governance.

Greater Manchester

These projects are all being undertaken in Greater Manchester, North West of England.

Sheffield

These projects are all being undertaken in the Sheffield city-region, in the Yorkshire and Humber region of England.

You can search our work by clicking on the themes below:

Culture Heritage and Citizenship
Democracy and Engagement
International Collaborations
Local Management and Organisations
Neighbourhoods and Communities
Planning and Environment
Economy and Entrepreneurship
Digital Tools and Techniques
Methods and Practices
Greater Manchester
Sheffield
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Food

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Sustainable Development Goals

Planning and Environment
International Collaborations
Sheffield
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Cultural Heritage

Culture Heritage and Citizenship
Neighbourhoods and Communities
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Migration

Culture Heritage and Citizenship
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International Collaborations
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Participatory Cities

Democracy and Engagement
International Collaborations
Greater Manchester
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Cities of Change

Democracy and Engagement
International Collaborations
Digital Tools and Techniques
Greater Manchester
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Whose Heritage Matters

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