City Road Podcast

What can urban alliances and community organising teach us about building political unity across difference in cities? The 'progressive dilemma' is an apparent problem for contemporary left politics and our two guests have very different takes on the issue, and how it relates to urban politics. Our first guest is professor of politics from the UK and the other is a community organiser from Sydney. They discuss the challenges of centre-left politics and urban alliances. "It's a terrible city sometimes, and it's a beautiful city, and there are interesting people in it that matter, who deserve the kind of city people want to live in. I think we need a core of people who are committed to that city, who are willing to transform it." Chantelle Ogilvie-Ellis They talk about the possibilities for political renewal in political practices that build relationships across diverse urban geographies and political difference in cities, and in cultivating a belonging to place that is still open to and attentive of diversi

Contemporary global circuits of policy advice are abuzz with 'urban solutions' from a growing industry of 'thought leaders'. These urban experts talk about 'policy solutions' and 'best practice models' and they have a ready supply of policy success stories from around the world. "What I'm really trying to study is this global circuitry of knowledge, a global network, and I'm engaging with cities not as specific field sites, but as entry points into this dynamic, fast-moving landscape." Rachel Bok Rachel Bok calls this 'superlative urbanism'; a practice whereby urban solutions experts have created an industry out of selling city managers a range of urban fixes. And while we're talking about urban fixes, you really should read Rachel's paper on the idea of the 'fix' called By our metaphors you shall know us’: The ‘fix’ of geographical political economy. Rachel says the celebratory policy narratives about innovation and progress often stand in stark contrast to the lack of urban policy innovation on the groun

What makes up a nation? In the 21st century, nationalist frames are giving way to new interpretations of the global. Dr Jennifer Ferng speaks with Professor Vikram Prakash and Professor Julie Willis about the Encyclopedia of Australian architecture, national identity, and the obstacles to capturing selected moments of history. Prakash and Willis speak about the tensions between the national and the global. They share personal experiences about how they each came to study Australian architecture and India’s architecture as well as how their roles in universities have come to shape their trajectories as academics and intellectual leaders. Guests Vikram Prakash is the Director of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Programs in the Office of the Dean, College of Built Environments, University of Washington and founding board member of GAHTC – the Global Architectural History Teaching Collaborative. He is a fellow podcast host himself – in fact, he hosts ArchitectureTalk in the US – a bi-weekly podcast with curated

Is modern architecture actually energy efficient? Buildings like the Bauhaus Dessau designed by Walter Gropius required large amounts of heating in the 1920s. The preservation of modern buildings like these often require large amounts of energy consumption, which places them at odds with contemporary ideas around energy efficiency. "We have been conditioned as humans to a certain type of lifestyle that is dependant - heavily dependent - upon the use of fossil fuels." Associate Professor Daniel Barber Dr Jennifer Ferng speaks with Associate Professor Daniel Barber from the University of Pennsylvania about the modernist principles behind the Bauhaus, its legacy, and how energy efficiency has changed how architects deal with renovations and regulations around cultural heritage. Innovations in heating systems often lagged behind the aesthetic principles that determined buildings like the Bauhaus Dessau. The performance of modernist structures remains incompatible with what we view now as contemporary standards

Universities are grappling with creating an inclusive and global curriculum that will serve the needs of 21st century architecture students. In terms of architecture, which theories and buildings from which countries and cities should be included, and what are academics doing to address the histories of Indigenous peoples? "The reason I'm here is only because I basically dedicated 40 years of trying to get rid of the education I had in the past; critique it."  Professor Mark Jarzombek Dr Jennifer Ferng speaks with Professor Mark Jarzombek and Professor Jaky Troy about the challenges in creating university curriculum that encompasses the contributions of many countries and peoples. They discuss the importance of first societies and first nations, the role of vernacular examples of architecture, and try to define what the global means for the 21st century. Jarzombek and Troy share some of their experiences from places around the world and explain how they try to bring these sites  - archaeological, architect

Around the world cities are running out of drinking water. Yes, literally running out of water! Cape Town is a well-publicised example. But recently Chennai, and before that São Paulo, all faced the possibility of water not coming out of the taps. So what do cities do to respond to this crisis? How is the crisis materialised differently across cities? For whom is there a water crisis? “For me, it’s almost like, these experiences offer us an insight into what’s happening globally” Dr Nate Millington We’re talking with Nate Millington about these questions, which emerge from his research in managing water in the midst of changing climate dynamics and profound inequalities in Cape Town and São Paulo. "It's getting harder and harder for the infrastructures that we have in place to deal with the climate" Dr Nate Millington Guest Dr Nate Millington is a Presidential Fellow in Urban Studies in the Geography Department at the University of Manchester. His research is focused on the politics of the urban env

The financial industry has an image problem; capitalism functions by creating both wealth and poverty. But for financiers, the problem of poverty might just be reimagined as an investment opportunity. "I'm looking at how - the way that finance works in cities is to create a lot of inequalities [and this] is starting to be incorporated back into finance; as people who are in control of capital are looking for both new things to invest in and also looking at a lot of bad PR from this [capitalist] process". Dr Emily Rosenman Dr Sophie Webber is talking to Dr Emily Rosenman from Penn State University about how social finance investment works, and whether it is actually possibly to reduce poverty while making money. Social finance claims to solve social problems emerging from impoverishment and inequality; while spinning a profit at the same time. So what is social impact investment? It’s a way for governments to outsource and incentivise the services that are provided to address social disadvantage, such as po

Episode 1 of the Country and Cities Series This a truth telling, of sorts, about how urban planning and built environment professions are implicated in the settler colonial process, with Libby Porter and Naama Blatman-Thomas "[Settler colonialism is] a structure of governance and control where white people - European people - arrive to a new territory, a new area, and create a new political entity there; so a new nation state. We're talking about something that is ongoing, that is not a one-time invasion, or one-time event, but really something that transforms the nature of that place invaded. And everything that comes with that; social arrangements, economic arrangements and political constitutions." Dr Naama Blatman-Thomas We're listening in on a conversation between Genevieve Murray, Joel Sherwood-Spring, Libby Porter and Naama Blatman-Thomas. Genevieve and Joel are talking to Libby and Naama about three ideas in their recent International Journal of Urban and Regional Research research article: Propert

"... the terrain of struggle for justice is happening in the city and in the countryside, and it's beginning to link." Eric Holt-Giménez In response to the social inequities and ecological damage wrought by the industrial and globalising food system, a growing food movement that champions food and farm justice, sovereignty and democracy is driving social, economic and political change across the globe. This industrial food system not only creates food and farm insecurity, it reformulates rural/urban relations, city to rural migrations and vice versa, and the social and political networks in cities - even what it means to be a citizen.   "You think about the United States or Australian, for instance,  how many people are actually on the land? Well, less than 2 percent of the population in both cases. In the United States we have more people in prison than we have on the land." Eric Holt-Giménez Eric Holt-Giménez talks about la Via Campesina, a global womens rights movement. "Rural and indigenous women hav

A gender sensitivity urban design process considers the political, cultural and economic factors that produce gender-based exclusion and discrimination in our cities. We're talking with Associate Professor Nicole Kalms from the Department of Design at Monash University. Nicole is the founding Director of the XYX Lab, a research group looking at the intersection of Space, Gender and Communication. XYX Lab is a team of design researchers exploring gender-sensitive design practices and theory. Their work operates at the intersection of gender, identity, urban space and advocacy. They bring together planners, policy makers, local government and stakeholders to make tangible the experiences of underrepresented communities in urban space and planning. XYX Lab is grounded in feminist and queer theory and activated through real-world projects. Equal parts qualitative and quantitative research, they regularly work to collect and analyse data and experiences in order to generate deeper understanding and support our

We’re travelling up the east coast of Australia with two early career researchers to talk about families and cities. Our first stop is Wollongong, about 70 kilometres south of Sydney with Dr Susannah Clement. Our second stop is Brisbane, about 900 kilometres north of Sydney with Dr Kate Raynor. Susannah has been tagging on with mothers and their children as they walk along the streets of Wollongong. She’s interested in the everyday experiences of family life in the city, and how walking is experienced by families with young children. For these families, a walkable street has been design with families in mind, and this includes opportunities for care and play. Susannah suggests that a walkable street – a street with spaces of care and play – is a street where pedestrians and cars are held in tension. Thinking about streets in this way forces us to think about the role of cars in our cities, but it also opens up new spaces for, well, being a family. Then we leave the street and head up into a high-density ap

You've probably heard about residential mortgage-backed securities and the global financial crisis. But did you know corporate mortgage-backed securities were reshaping American cities at the same time? During the Great Recession, the housing bubble took much of the blame for bringing the American economy to its knees, but commercial real estate also experienced its own boom-and-bust. "... somebody would still be interested in the building they were putting up because it was viewed less as a space and place for economic activity to take place in and more as a financial commodity" Professor Rachel Weber We're talking to Rachel Weber about her book 'From Boom to Bubble', and the role of tax increment financing and corporate mortgage-backed securities in the city of Chicago. Rachel debunks the idea that booms occur only when cities are growing and innovating. Instead, she argues, even in cities experiencing employment and population decline, developers rush to erect new office towers and apartment buildings w

What’s at stake in podcasting the urban? There might be more to this question than you think. Podcasting the Urban is a five-part series where we turn the academic gaze back onto our podcasting practice. We are playing the first episode in the series in the City Road feed. For more details see: https://cityroadpod.org/2018/12/19/podcasting-the-urban-five-part-series/ In 2018 City Road organised four public panel discussions to critically interrogate the idea of academics podcasting the urban, and we recorded two of them for this series. We ran the two recorded panel discussions as live listening events in front of a studio audience. At each event we played podcast excerpts from some of our favourite podcasts and we talked about them. We discuss: Oral storytelling and Indigenous methodologies as radio practice; the history of Aboriginal community radio in Sydney; podcasting as an engaged research methodology; podcasting as a research dissemination tool; the politics of representation and voice; working acro

Education is one of the key civil rights struggles of our era, and urban schools need to do more to bridge the 'civic empowerment gaps' between students. How and what we teach children will determine how they engage in civic life for the rest of their life. It's time to rethink the role of civic education in our cities. This goes way beyond tweaking the curriculum. It means upending the curriculum altogether. It's about teaching students about power, justice and the need for collective action, and their role in improving their lives and society. We're talking with Professor Meira Levinson about her teaching and research. Meira's work draws on eight years of teaching in urban public schools in Atlanta and Boston. Educational disadvantage was a reality for many minority or disadvantaged students in these schools. Meira suggests that urban schools in some America cities are suffering from a 'civic empowerment gap', an achievement gap that was targeted by a 2001 government act known as No Child Left Behind. Fo

In the early 1990s, when China’s artists were less able to participate in open debate about the shape of Chinese society, they turned to the production of urban space instead. “If you want to see the political impact of Chinese artists, we can look to the city in order to see that.” Dr Christen Cornell After the 1989 protests at Tiananmen Square, Chinese cities entered a period of radical social and spatial reorganisation. During the process, artists began to move from the countryside into Beijing. Some artists took up residence in the old communist compounds that had once housed the collective work units – compounds that were now earmarked for demolition. You have probably heard of Ai Wei Wei, the controversial Chinese artist who designed the so-called birds nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics. But what you might not know about artists like Ai Wei Wei is they have been reshaping the physical, cultural and perhaps even the political fabric of Beijing. We’re chatting with Dr Christen Cornell to find out h

PART II - How much public land has been stolen from the British people? The short answer is, a lot! We’re talking to Professor Brett Christophers from Uppsala University about his new book, The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain. And it’s a story that we just couldn’t squeeze into one episode, so alas, we’ve given the next two episodes of City Road over to exploring the ideas in the book. In the first episode we talk about the old enclosure acts of the last few centuries before moving to what Brett calls the new enclosure—or the privatisation of public land in the UK today. In the second episode, Brett draws some connections between the privatisation of public land and addressing the housing problem in the UK. He maps out the winners and losers of The New Enclosure, and here’s a hot tip, if you’re looking to buy or rent a house, you’re unlikely to be a winner. Here is the book blurb from Verso. Much has been written about Britain’s trailblazing post-1970s privatisation

PART I - How much public land has been stolen from the British people? The short answer is, a lot! We’re talking to Professor Brett Christophers from Uppsala University about his new book, The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain. And it’s a story that we just couldn’t squeeze into one episode, so alas, we’ve given the next two episodes of City Road over to exploring the ideas in the book. In the first episode we talk about the old enclosure acts of the last few centuries before moving to what Brett calls the new enclosure—or the privatisation of public land in the UK today. In the second episode, Brett draws some connections between the privatisation of public land and addressing the housing problem in the UK. He maps out the winners and losers of The New Enclosure, and here’s a hot tip, if you’re looking to buy or rent a house, you’re unlikely to be a winner. Here is the book blurb from Verso. Much has been written about Britain’s trailblazing post-1970s privatisation

In cities around the world, people are channeling their frustration with existing community engagement processes into the creation of urban alliances. These alliances bring together diverse civil society actors in pursuit of social change. This is the second part of our two-part discussion about democracy and cities. We talk to Amanda Tattersall about how urban alliances work in practice in different cities around the world. We travel to Cape Town in South Africa and  Barcelona in Spain, before returning to Sydney, Australia. "I'm interested in the urban alliances that are going to allow citizens to have a better city. I see them as progressive, because if citizens are going to have more rights, and more resources supporting their lives, that is a progressive outcome." Dr Amanda Tattersall  If you missed the first part of our discussion you might want to catch up on that episode first. We talk to Kurt Iveson about urban alliances that allow citizens to play a proactive role in shaping their cities. Kurt su

We talk to Saskia Sassen about her work on globalisation and the global city by tracing the key ideas in three of her books. We start with Saskia's most famous book, 'The Global City', and the idea of intermediation in the global city. We move onto Saskia's historical and, as Saskia suggests, her best book, 'Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages' to discuss the methodological tools of capacities, tipping points and organising logics. We end our discussion with Saskia's latest book, 'Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy' and the ideas of expulsion and the systemic edge in the present. Guest Professor Saskia Sassen is the Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and a Member of its Committee on Global Thought, which she chaired till 2015. She is a student of cities, immigration, and states in the world economy, with inequality, gendering and digitization three key variables running though her work. Born in the Netherlands, she grew up in A

After the Arab Spring, Occupy and the Umbrella Movement the streets were cleared. But as the dust was settling some more durable democratic experiments emerged. These urban alliances sought to make our cities more equitable places to live. In this two-part episode on democracy and cities we’re talking about a new type of political movement that is forming in different cities around the world; its called an urban alliance. In this first episode, Associate Professor Kurt Iveson sets up the discussion by telling us why cities are important for democracy. “There’s a basic demographic thing about, you know, the majority of the world’s population now living in cities… that’s really important, in the sense of, the particular problems of everyday life in cities are now being experienced by millions of people around the planet... questions of water, food, housing, transport…” Associate Professor Kurt Iveson It’s not only that there are different ways to practise democracy in our cities, but the very fabric of our c