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A Realising Just Cities Project

Jam and Justice

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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Space in Common: what we learnt

As Space in Common has come to an end, we’ve created a short report assessing what was achieved and sharing some of the key points learnt from these discussions.

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Co-Producing Climate Urbanism: Learning From Experience

Thursday, September 5, 2019 - 17:00 to 19:00
Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences, Conference Room, 219 Portobello, Sheffield, S1 4DP

Cities across the UK have declared a climate emergency. This panel will explore co-production's potential role in achieving climate action.

Climate change is increasingly being recognised as an emergency. Sheffield and Manchester have both declared a climate emergency. Beyond statements recognising the climate crisis, how can cities co-produce meaningful action to address climate change?

  • Read more about Co-Producing Climate Urbanism: Learning From Experience

Putting people first: Why citizens are the lynchpin to achieving urban climate action

By Ryan Bellison, PhD Student 22nd July 2019

I, like most other researchers, am passionate about the topics I investigate. So when I was recently presented with an opportunity to participate in a TV programme, I was quite excited to share my work with a new audience.

  • Read more about Putting people first: Why citizens are the lynchpin to achieving urban climate action

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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During the Energy Walk (People's Republic of Energy)

Energy Walk around Greater Manchester

Tuesday, February 5, 2019 - 16:45

In 2018, the People's Republic of Energy project ran a series of creative activities including a walk through the past and future of Greater Manchester's energy supply.

Walks will run again in 2019, in February and March, with support from project partners Carbon Coop.

Further information including all walk dates and how to book a place will be available from January.

  • Read more about Energy Walk around Greater Manchester

Is co-production possible in planning? Notes from a roundtable on participatory cities

Roundtable on Participatory Cities, Realising Just Cities – Comparative Co-production, Mistra Urban Futures conference, Cape Town, South Africa, November 2018

By Nazem Tahvilzadeh, post-doctoral researcher Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Planning and the Environment, Division of Urban and Regional Studies, Stockholm.

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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.

  • Read more about Mistra Urban Futures Conference 2018, Cape Town

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.

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

Community-led housing: a new era of cross-party support?

by Richard Goulding and Sophie King

We are undoubtedly witnessing “a moment” in the history-making of community-led housing in the UK. Where has it sprung from? Where is it going? What are the motivations behind new forms of political support on left and right, from the centre, and at the local level? What would meaningful political support actually look like in practice and how can it be secured?

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UK Planning Research Conference - Roundtable Discussion

Monday, September 3, 2018 - 09:00 to Wednesday, September 5, 2018 - 17:00
University of Sheffield

On 3rd to 5th September the UK and Ireland Planning Research Conference 2018 comes to the University of Sheffield. The conference offers a chance for international researchers, students, and practitioners to share work and discuss key themes and trends in planning.

  • Read more about UK Planning Research Conference - Roundtable Discussion

Why are there no Community Land Trusts in Greater Manchester?

Community land trusts (CLTs) have been celebrated as a potential model for neighbourhood revival in areas of disinvestment and neglect. In the face of concerns about communities in many cities being displaced by rising land values, advocates hope that CLTs can also provide a way of enabling existing residents to remain in their homes and neighbourhoods.

  • Read more about Why are there no Community Land Trusts in Greater Manchester?

Five reasons why we need more cohousing

By Carl Makin (@carlmakin) a member of the Housing Futures Steering Group

“When people feel supported by strong relationships, change happens. And when we make collaboration and connection feel simple and easy, people want to join in. Yet our welfare state does not try to connect us one to another.” [1]

  • Read more about Five reasons why we need more cohousing

How can we have better conversations about spatial planning in Greater Manchester?

Space in Common is a Jam and Justice project led and delivered in partnership between The Democratic Society and the Action Research Collective.

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About the Realising Just Cities PhD programme

There are three PhD students now working on the Realising Just Cities programme in Sheffield-Manchester.

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Call for Papers 'Valuing Urban Dissensus', RC21 Leeds

Valuing Urban Dissensus: Contested Knowledge Claims in Realising Just Cities, Call for Papers, RC21 Leeds, 11-13 Sep 2017

  • Read more about Call for Papers 'Valuing Urban Dissensus', RC21 Leeds

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
Reset Filters

People's Republic of Energy

Planning and Environment
Democracy and Engagement
Greater Manchester
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Space in Common

Planning and Environment
Democracy and Engagement
Neighbourhoods and Communities
Greater Manchester
  • Read more

Co-producing the Green Summit

Planning and Environment
Democracy and Engagement
Greater Manchester
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