Programme Open conference
Tuesday 15th October 2019
Venue: Cutlers’ Hall, Church Street, Sheffield, S1 1HD
0815-0900 Registration and Coffee
Music from Sheffield University Student Brass Band
0900-0915 Welcome to the 4th Annual Realising Just Cities Conference
Beth Perry, Co-Director, Urban Institute (University of Sheffield), and Sheffield-Manchester Platform Director, Mistra Urban Futures.
0915-0945 Realising Just Cities: An Overview of Activity and Impact
David Simon, Director, Mistra Urban Futures; Rike Sitas, Cape Town Platform Co-ordinator, Mistra Urban Futures and African Centre for Cities; Warren Smit, Cape Town Platform Director, Mistra Urban Futures and African Centre for Cities; Jan Riise, Engagement Manager, Mistra Urban Futures.
0945-1030 What Difference Did It Make? Stakeholder Views
Chair: Henrietta Palmer, Deputy Scientific Director, Mistra Urban Futures
Speakers: Maria Sigroth, Head of Department Regional Planning and Environment, Gothenburg Region; Sharon Davis, Founder of Mums Mart and GM Savers; Peter Ahmad, Manager, City Growth Management, City of Cape Town; Sam Okello, Member of Kisumu City Board and Chairman Kisumu Local Interaction Platform; Barry Ness, Skåne Platform Director, Mistra Urban Futures.
See videos What difference did it make? Barry Ness, Lund University, Skåne, Sweden, reflects.
See videos What difference did it make? Maria Sigroth, Gothenburg region, Sweden, reflects.
Watch more videos from the sessions from Sharon Davis, Mums Mart, Sheffield, Peter Ahmad, Cape Town, Sam Okello, Kisumu.
1030-1100 Break (Hadfield Hall)
1100-1230 Parallel Sessions
See videos from parallel sessions
Realising Just Cities in the context of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. (Banqueting Hall)
How can we realise just cities in the context of Agenda 2030? Drawing on experiences at our different platforms, this session shows how local work aligns with and contributes to global goals. Topic areas include: solid waste management, transport, food, cultural heritage, sustainable welfare and poverty reduction. Questions include: how can we address the challenges of resourceconstrained prioritisation SDGs and basic needs – e.g. solid waste management? How can and do cities operate and innovate in relation to global agendas as part of multi-level governance arrangements of differing coherence and proactivity? How have these cities embedded sustainability and SDG mapping in different national and local contexts? How do cities approach climate change, vulnerability reduction, resilience strategies and adaptive transformation in relation to the global agendas?
Leader: David Simon Rapporteur: Barry Ness
Universities and urban development: knowledge in action (Drawing Room)
This workshop included presentations which draw upon experiences of working in different contexts in the Mistra Urban Futures programme. Presenters will reflect on their experiences of working across boundaries and the opportunities and challenges posed in linking knowledge and action. In the process they will address the following: what are the issues raised for academic practice when working across boundaries with a commitment to producing social change. And what does this mean for the role of the university in urban development?
Leader: Tim May Rapporteur: Olivia Bina
Small but diverse: the role of urban and rural communities in place-based diversity and inclusiveness (Reception Room)
The workshop focused on the roles of networks, institutions and projects in urban and rural communities in generating diversity and inclusiveness. There will be three presentations on cases in different countries, focussed on impacts, challenges and opportunities of different types of initiatives. This will be followed by generating shared knowledge with participants in the session, through workshop activities.
Leader: Eva-Maria Jernsand and Emma Björner Rapporteur: Adrian Ball
1230-1330 Lunch and Networking (Hadfield Hall)
Lunch was served. Display tables for each of the Mistra Urban Futures platforms was aiding networking and discussion.
1330-1500 Parallel Sessions
Building capacity for co-production: training the next generation of scholars and practitioners (Drawing Room)
If we are serious about co-production as a way to solve societal problems and realise urban justice, what kind of capacity development is needed for future scholars and practitioners? This workshop explored different approaches to developing the competencies for co-production amongst practitioners and researchers. We drew on different perspectives in the room and offer reflections from experiences across our platforms. The workshop started with an open discussion on what competencies are needed, and how to develop them, followed by a panel discussion presenting and sharing learning from four different geographical contexts and situations. Key questions and themes that emerge from the panel then formed the provocation for smaller discussion groups.
Leader: Henrietta Palmer Rapporteur: Sean Cooke
Agenda 2030 and public finance: who pays for sustainable cities? (Goodwin room)
Global policy agendas such as Agenda 2030 allocate a central role to cities as sites and actors in achieving sustainable development. Whilst there has been a lot of attention to the different ways to plan for the implementation of the SDGs, there has been less focus on how this can be financed at a local level. Drawing on the experiences of researchers and policymakers across different cities, this session will reflect on the different approaches that cities are taking and on the fiscal structures, mechanisms, architectures that need to be in place to get SDG financing right.
Leader: Sylvia Croese, Liza Cirolia Rapporteur: Michael Oloko
Participatory cities and alternative models of urban development (Banqueting Hall)
The UN has made a commitment to ‘meaningful participation’ at all levels as a fundamental precondition for realising just cities. But what does this actually mean in practice? This session presented research findings and heard from work across the platforms that sought to reveal different interpretations of and methods for creating more participatory cities. There was a short activity for participants to share their own experiences and ideas about ‘meaningful participation’. What examples can people identify of ‘meaningful’ participation in different urban contexts? What participatory methods and tools can be used to value different kinds of knowledge in urban processes? What is the role of movements and coalitions in developing participatory cities?
Leader: Beth Perry Rapporteur: David Rogerson
What is meaningful collaboration? Reflections from work on food systems and urban regeneration (Reception Room)
The workshop draws on experiences from two recent MISTRA supported collaboration and co-production projects. The workshop is made up of three aligned components. The first session aligns with a general understanding of coproduction, that of the collaboration between academics and policy makers in the pursuit of sustainable neighbourhood development. The second area of work investigates coproduction between academics from different contexts and regions. These two sessions raised interesting questions about process, power, voice, values, disciplinary positions, immediacy and contextual dynamics. These questions opened up to wider discussion with the audience through an interactive final session.
Leader: Warren Smit Rapporteur: Kerstin Hemström
1500-1515 Mini Break
1515-1645 Parallel Sessions
Practices, processes and politics of city-academic partnerships (Drawing Room)
The importance of engaged scholarship is being recognised across the globe. In response, there has been a proliferation of different kinds of city-academic partnerships in many cities. City municipalities and universities have recognised the mutual benefits of collaborating on a range of issues – from developing responses to climate change; to better understanding how to finance development; to developing cultural plans that respond to the desires of residents. Mistra Urban Futures local interaction platforms have been engaged in different kinds of these collaborations. Through an interactive set of activities, this session did seek to generate lively collective discussion about the practices, processes and politics inherent in the work we have undertaken between the university and the city.
Leader: Rike Sitas Rapporteur: Alexandra McVicar-Payling
What do we need to do differently to co-produce knowledge and action with residents, activists and communities? (Banqeting Hall)
This workshop was an opportunity to hear directly from local residents and activists across the cities of Manchester and Salford about their experiences of knowledge coproduction with academics and professionals. We were joined by a representative from SDI Kenya who has partnered with Manchester community groups. Together with attendees, we explored questions such as: what are the most important ingredients of effective knowledge co-production partnerships? What different considerations are necessary when working with grassroots communities compared to middle class activist networks or mature urban social movements? And what are the most common challenges that need to be addressed to meet diverse objectives?
Leader: Sophie King Rapporteur: Lyla Mehta
Co-production at pace: reacting to a climate emergency (Reception room)
In the present escalating discourse surrounding the climate emergency, this workshop will explore co-production’s potential role for translating the emergency into action in a variety of different contexts. Taking inspiration from two PhD research projects with municipal authorities and trade unions, this workshop also drew on other examples of relevant co-produced climate actions in other spheres. Interviews with key participants set the scene, introducing the climate emergency and co-production. A ‘live’ example demonstrated the potential and challenges of co-producing climate action. There was time for discussion, including wider examples and reflecting on ways forward. We welcomed researchers exploring coproduction or sustainability, policy-makers and activists, and others with an interest in the topic—even if you are new to the idea of co-production.
Leader: Ryan Bellinson, Jenny Patient Rapporteur: Carol Wright
1650-1720 What Have We Heard? Summing Up the Parallel Session
Chair: Rike Sitas, Cape Town Platform/Coordinator: Mistra Urban Futures, the rapporteurs were invited to summarise the parallel sessions and share their reflections.
1720-1750 Panel: How can we support local action to address global challenges and realise more just cities?
Chair: Beth Perry, Co-Director, Urban Institute (University of Sheffield) & Sheffield-Manchester Platform Director, Mistra Urban Futures
Speakers: David Simon, Director, Mistra Urban Futures; Caroline Wanjiku Kihato, Visiting Associate Professor, Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg and Mistra Urban Futures Board member; Vanessa Toulmin, Director City and Culture, University of Sheffield; Mark Whitworth, Sustainability and Climate Change Service Manager, Sheffield City Council.
1750-1800 Closing Remarks and Thanks
1930-2300 The Conference Dinner
A conference dinner was provided for Mistra Urban Futures delegates and invited guests, with entertainment. This was held in the Cutlers’ Hall where the Open Conference will took place.
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