- Thursday 25 September
Building ‘liveable’ cities is widely seen as a key task of contemporary urban planning and policy. But what about the roles of urban struggles, activism, and grassroots initiatives? How do they imagine, shape and contest forms of liveability? In what way do they seek to de-commodify housing?
Struggles over urban spaces and housing have been vital in making spaces that are more conducive to collective urban life, both human and more-than-human. If liveability is to be more than an empty buzzword or a cover for upper and middle-class interests, such conflicts remain central in determining how cities might be liveable, and for whom.
This talk and discussion focus on squatting and alternative housing practices. What can be learned from how they appropriate and occupy spaces? What alternative modes of liveability do they embody? What are the implications for how we might come to imagine, design and assemble better urban futures?
Participants
- Alexander Vasudevan, author and associate professor at University of Oxford
This session is presented by Roskilde University.