Whose City? London, Housing and Inequality
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Clore Management Centre
Whose City? London, Housing and Inequality
Our cities are increasingly places owned, run or benefitting someone or something else. The purchase of homes as assets by investment companies, the profiteering of landlords, the sale and demolition of social housing, the erosion of ‘red tape’ in the name of unfettered investment by the wealthy – these are all signals of a kind of urban life in which every day working populations are being unhomed, displaced and dislodged from the everyday needs that cities had come to provide in the post-War period. The slow death of municipal life, the privatisation of everything, from housing to public space, the gifts to capital in the name of growth, have all fundamentally diminished our collective experience of so much that was good about city life. In the midst of multiple crises – in housing, politics, our environment and in the cost of simply living – these issues press on the populace of cities everywhere. And how should citizens – not least Londoners – respond to these crises and to widening inequality?
Join us for this important event, with six dynamic and accessible presentations linked to a series of important new books on London and city life today. We will hear about the over-bearing influence of London, the massive inequalities at the heart of everyday local life in the city, the disaster at Grenfell Tower, new analysis of the five pillars of the welfare state, the destruction of social housing estates, and the capture of the city by the super-rich.
Presentations from:
Peter Apps – author of Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen (Oneworld Publications, 2022)
https://oneworld-publications.com/work/show-me-the-bodies-2/
Rowland Atkinson – author of Alpha City: How the Super-Rich Captured London (Verso, 2020)
https://www.versobooks.com/books/3179-alpha-city
Sam Bright – author of Fortress London: Why we need to save the country from its capital (Harper Collins Publishers, 2022)
Emma Dent Coad – author of One Kensington: Tales from the frontline of the most unequal borough in Britain (Quercus, 2022)
https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/titles/emma-dent-coad/one-kensington/9781529417265/
Daniel Renwick & Robbie Shilliam – authors of Squalor (Agenda, 2022)
https://www.agendapub.com/page/detail/squalor/?k=9781788213882
Paul Watt – author of Estate Regeneration and Its Discontents: Public Housing, Place and Inequality in London (Policy Press, 2021)
https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/estate-regeneration-and-its-discontents
Chair: Edward Daffarn (Grenfell United)
Organisers:
Professor Rowland Atkinson (Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield) & Professor Paul Watt (Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London)
This event – hosted by Birkbeck, University of London – is free and open to the public. Join us for an evening of insights, analysis and conversation.
Room B01, lower ground floor, Birkbeck Clore Management Building, Torrington Square, London, WC1E 7JL.
Contact name:
Eden Davis
Contact phone:
(+44) 020 3926 1805