Realising Just Cities
Realising Just Cities was a programme of research and action hosted at the University of Sheffield -- a partnership between scholars, activists, policy-makers, social enterprises and community organisations aimed at supporting progressive social, economic and environmental change in the North of England.
Our distinctive approach was to create platforms for organising knowledge from different urban stakeholders to support sustainable transitions. These Local Interaction Platforms (LIPs) worked to co-produce knowledge and action through transdisciplinary and comparative urban research. LIPs were based in Gothenburg, Skane, Kisumu, Cape Town and Sheffield-Manchester.
The Sheffield-Manchester Local Interaction Platform was hosted by the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield.
At the heart of the Sheffield programme was the need to develop and integrate knowledge and action to rethink how to manage and develop cities to address chronic injustices.
The programme comprised over 15 action research projects, designed and delivered with partner organisations across the Greater Manchester and Sheffield city-regions. These included:
- Localising the Sustainable Development Goals in the UK
- Self-organising Action for Food Equity (SAFE)
- Community-led Organising: Seeing the Inner City from the South
- Housing Futures
Realising Just Cities was also part of an international network of cities for change in Sweden, Kenya and South Africa within the Mistra Urban Futures centre (2010-2019). You can still visit the legacy website for the Centre.
Team
Beth Perry | Tim May | Vicky Simpson | Nick Taylor Buck | Sophie King | Victoria Habermehl | Bert Russell | Iona Hine | Kristina Diprose | Charlie Spring
The programme involved collaborators across sectors, geographies and organisations. For a full list of everyone involved, see the final report.