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Episode 27 – Teaching and Learning in Urban Research (AfterCorona #9)
Robin Chang and Meg Holden discuss how the Covid-19 situation has disrupted teaching and learning practices in urban research, deepening existing and exposing new inequalities. They consider in particular the short and long term implications of on-going restrictions for experiential learning, what this means for urban research methods, drawing on concepts like discomfort and positing a notion of…
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Episode 26 – Spatialities of Shock (AfterCorona #8)
Reflecting on how shocks are applied as tools to further political agendas, Creighton Connolly, S. Harris Ali, and Roger Keil consider the implications for racialized inequalities and the Global South-North divide. Two months after the first conversation with out guests, at a moment when the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, Creighton, Harris, and Roger…
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Episode 25 – Migration and Labour Struggles (AfterCorona #7)
How is the pandemic affecting conditions of labour and migrant workers? How are Unions and other organisations reacting? In this wide-ranging and forensic discussion with Michelle Buckley (Toronto), Rajan Pandey (Bangalore) and Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay (Mohali) tell us about on-going struggles around mobility and labour in Canada and India. We hear about how the Indian state…
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Episode 24 – Dark Clouds over Informal Settlements II: Responses to the Pandemic (AfterCorona #6)
Reporting from Kenya and South Africa with Jethron Ayumba Akallah and Marie Huchzermeyer provide us with a detailed account of the coronavirus-pandemic in their context, the conditions within the informal settlements, the state approaches and the responses by civic organizations. Marie and Jethron share their perspective on the opportunities and threats of this situation and…
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Episode 23 – Dark Clouds over Informal Settlements I: Politics of Land and Infrastructure
This episode explores contemporary politics around land and infrastructure in informal settlements in Kenya and South Africa with Jethron Ayumba Akallah and Marie Huchzermeyer. This is the first part of the episode on informal settlements and provides the context for the second part which focuses on the situation of the unfolding coronavirus pandemic, state responses…
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Episode 22 – Post-growth, Post-Covid? (AfterCorona #5)
In the episode we speak to Viola Schulze Dieckhoff (Technical University of Dortmund, Germany) and Christian Lamker (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) about the paradigm of post-growth and its relation to cities. In particular we discussed the roots of this concept and movement in academia and beyond, what it means in terms of planning, living…
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Episode 21 – Blaming Density (AfterCorona #4)
Is density really the key variable to explain the dynamics of the pandemic? Colin McFarlane takes a critical look at accounts that blame urban density for the drama that is unfolding in many cities. McFarlane discusses how racalized divisions are exacerbated in this situation and how new inequalities are produced. Considering Arundhati Roy’s metaphor of…
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Episode 20 – Urban Logics of Action (AfterCorona #3)
Drawing on insights from her latest book “Global Urban Politics”, Julie-Anne Boudreau puts the current response to the coronavirus in Mexico City and Montreal in a larger frame of understanding. She elaborates on the difference between urban and state logics of action and its importance to grasping the divergent situations. As a point of hope,…
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Episode 19 – Inequalities of the Lockdown (AfterCorona #2)
Drawing on her understanding of community as an urban practice and her recent research on social and educational inequalities in Berlin, Talja Blokland underlines how the lockdown exacerbates inequalities in view of labor, education, and social capital. She presents her argument why digital media cannot replace the vital functions that social interactions in physical space…
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Episode 18 – The New Municipalism (part 2)
In the second part of the New Municipalism series, Ross talks to Barcelona-based scholar-activist Laura Roth. She talks about the Spanish experience, particularly in relation to Barcelona en Comú, the movement party, which has been in minority government since 2014. Laura talked about a range of issues, including the importance of feminism to new municipalism,…
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Episode 17 – Digital Community Organizing (AfterCorona #1)
In a moment of self-isolation and physical distancing, digital media promises ongoing civic deliberation and community organizing. Nathan Schneider helps us explore the role of social media for mutual aid and peer production in times of corona. He elaborates on the key decision we face between subscribing to corporate platforms and digital cooperatives that are…
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Episode 16 – The Urbanization of COVID-19
Three prominent urban researchers with a focus on infectious diseases explain why political responses to the current coronavirus outbreak require an understanding of urban dynamics. Looking back at the last coronavirus pandemic, the SARS outbreak in 2002/3, they highlight what affected cities have learned from that experience for handling the ongoing crisis. Exploring the political…
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Episode 15 – Urban Sustainability as New Financial Fix?
The crisis of 2008 has set into motion a growing influence of finance in municipalities. In particular, financial actors have identified an enormous “investment gap” in cities in the Global South. This trend intersects with a new set of urban development strategies, that present the financial market as a catalyst for sustainable development. Standard setting…
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Episode 14 – Chile Despertó! Social Uprisings in Santiago
Chile despertó – Chile woke up – is a key slogan oft he ongoing uprisings in Chile that began in the capital Santiago in October 2019. Since then, heavy confrontations happened with the regime of president Piñera. For the first time since the dictatorship that ended in 1990, the army was deployed and curfews were…
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Episode 13 – The New Municipalism (part 1)
What is “New Municipalism”? In this first of a new series Ross seeks clarification from scholar-activists Bertie Russell and Matt Thompson who give us a conceptual and historical take on this new urban movement, offering reflections on UK examples like Preston. The interview was recorded at the end of August 2019 at the Royal Geographers…
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Episode 12 – Editorial Talk
Having successfully completed its initial test-phase, our podcast steps into higher gear. A good time for us to reflect on our experience so far and to plan for the next couple of months. Join us in our 15 mins editorial talk!
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Episode 11 – Oh, What Do You Do To Me? the City says to Tinder
Looking for Love? Over the past decade, the market for online dating has been booming. And this did not leave the offline city unaffected. Listen to Sam Miles’ sharp account on what online dating is all about and what it has to do with the urban. Far from being an innocent tool of the lonely…
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Episode 10 – On Metrolingualism
In a city, the idea of “standard language” falls apart. Linguistic researchers explain how urban space becomes a vital part of our ability to communicate in multilingual contexts. Think about “spatial repertoires” as the basis for communication. A market in Berlin-Kreuzberg, one of our guests’ research site, is the backdrop to illustrate how Turkish, Kurdish,…
