Sheffield Urbanism Showcase 2026: Urban Research as Social Action

Watch out for registrations for this year’s Sheffield Urbanism Summer Showcase, which will take place on Monday 15^th June all day, in the Diamond, University of Sheffield. 

This year’s Sheffield Urbanism showcase is a partnership with Voluntary Action Sheffield and explores urban research as social action in Sheffield and the wider Yorkshire region. It brings together researchers and civic partners to explore how collaborative work contributes to positive change across the city.

The event highlights research projects developed between the Sheffield Urbanism community and external partners—including community organisations, public bodies, and cultural institutions. It foregrounds not only what has been and is being done, but how collaborations are formed, experienced, and sustained in practice.

The day will feature joint presentations between academic and partner contributors, as well as contributions where partners participate as respondents and collaborators in discussion. 

Marking 100 years of Voluntary Action Sheffield, the event connects urban research to the city’s longer history of collective action and civic engagement. Participants are invited to reflect on how their work forms part of this evolving story and contributes to Sheffield’s growing archive of social action.

Through short presentations and facilitated conversations, the day aims to:

• Make visible who is working with whom across Sheffield
• Share partnered approaches to research, action, and impact
• Create space for dialogue between academic and non-academic collaborators
• Support new, locally grounded forms of collaboration
• Begin to collate a living archive of urban research as social action across the Sheffield city-region

Further information on how to sign up will be circulated.