The 4th Annual Realising Just Cities Conference takes place in Sheffield, UK from 13-18 October 2019. The conference focuses on lessons, impacts and outcomes since the start of Mistra Urban Futures (MUF) in 2010 but with particular emphasis on the current 2016-19 phase of closer international collaborative and comparative research now ending. MUF has sought to co-produce knowledge and action to support sustainable urban development across cities in the Global North and South, working through Local Interaction Platforms and other forms of partnership that bring together researchers from different stakeholders in transdisciplinary teams. The conference is hosted by the Sheffield-Manchester Local Interaction Platform and will include representatives from partner cities in Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Gothenburg, Kisumu, Malmö, Shimla, and Stockholm. The Week at a Glance Sunday 13th October, 1830-2030, Welcome Drinks and Reception, Sheffield Winter Gardens. Detailed Programme. Monday 14th October, 0900-1700, Comparative Project Work, Lunch and Sheffield Walking Tours. Detailed Programme. Tuesday 15th October, 0815-1800, Open Conference with parallel sessions, Lunch and Conference Dinner. Detailed Programme. Wednesday 16th October, 0730-2100, Coaches to Manchester field trips and workshops with Lunch and Networking Dinner in Manchester and coaches back to Sheffield. Detailed Programme. Thursday 17th October, 0900-1700, Board meeting, Some comparative project workshops, Keynote lecture and Lunch. Detailed Programme. Friday 18th October, 0900-1200, LIP-directors meeting, Some comparative project workshops. Detailed Programme. This page is only intended for Mistra Urban Futures delegates already associated with our city teams and who have been invited. Not a Mistra Urban Futures delegate? Head over to our Open Conference page, where you can find more information about how you can participate.
Visiting scholar Constance Smith from Social Anthropology at The University of Manchester presents Collapse: Grey development and fake buildings in Nairobi, on Tuesday, 8 October 2019, at 15:00. ABSTRACT Nairobi has recently experienced a spate of residential tower block collapses resulting in significant casualties. In an attempt to understand this precarious architecture, I juxtapose two different, yet linked, construction booms currently reshaping the city. The Kenyan government development rubric Vision 2030 is re-envisioning Nairobi as a ‘world class’ city of spectacular infrastructure and gleaming high-rise buildings. At the same time, ad hoc property speculation is constructing high density, poor-quality tower blocks that pose a high risk of structural failure; buildings that Nairobians often describe as ‘fake’. Drawing on literature in African Studies about the power of fakes and the counterfeit, as well as on recent debates in Urban Studies problematising informality, I reflect on Nairobi’s drastic landscape of architectural failure, and how this is entangled with larger processes of urban transformation. ABOUT Constance Smith is a UKRI Future Leader Fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, UK, where she also works within the Urban Institute. Her work explores the social, political and material dynamics of urban landscapes in times of transformation. She has done fieldwork in Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Kampala and London. Her new book, Nairobi in the Making: Landscapes of time and urban belonging (James Currey, 2019) explores how the residues of colonial architecture shape self-making and city-making in contemporary Nairobi. WHEN: Tuesday, 8 October 2019 TIME: 15:00 - 16:30 VENUE: Davies Reading Room, Environmental and Geographical Science Building, Upper Campus, UCT