Pathways to desirable urban futures with Prof Beth Perry

“Co-production” is increasingly recognised as central in pathways to more just urban futures, with the aim of enabling prosperity to be enjoyed by the many and not the few, through doing ‘with, not to’, as the mantra goes. Yet all too often the politics and structural inequalities that hamper this aspiration remain hidden. In this seminar Beth will reflect on current debates on the strengths and limitations of ‘co-production’, asking: why should urbanists care about co-production? Do the challenges outweigh the benefits? And how can we reposition co-production as an epistemic praxis to realise more just cities?

Accessibility

An access guide to Darwin Building, Lecture Theatre B40 can be found on AccessAble.

About the speaker

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her work bridges between urban studies, science and technology studies, sociology, political science and geography, and focuses on the politics and practices of knowledge production in society and its potential for place-based transformation. She is a leading expert on the relations between urban governance, policy, participation and the social organisation of knowledge, with a particular focus on co-production. She publishes widely on these topics in monographs, journals and the popular press, and produces creative output for different audiences. Books include Transdisciplinary Knowledge Production: A Guide for Sustainable Cities (with Kerstin Hemstrom, Henrietta Palmer, Merrit Polk and David Simon, Practical Action, 2021), Cities and the Knowledge Economy: Promise, Politics and Possibilities (with Tim May, Taylor and Francis, 2018) and Reflexivity: the Essential Guide (with Tim May, Sage, 2017). She is currently co-leading the Co-Pro Futures Inquiry with Profs Catherine Durose and Liz Richardson to develop an action plan for UK higher education institutions and funders to better support participatory research.

About this event series

Dreams, Desires and Aspirations: Imaginative Landscapes of Prosperity

At UCL Institute for Global Prosperity we are working towards a new model of prosperity for the 21st century, reworking the way we conceive and run our economies, our societies, and our relationship with the planet. Our social and collective imaginaries, dreams, and aspirations are at the core of that mission, not only in understanding how people strive towards ideas of prosperity, but in unearthing how and why different ideas are constructed as they are. This term, we are inviting scholars, novelists, politicians, artists, and film-makers to help us excavate some of the imaginary forces that brought ‘prosperity’ to where it is today, and where it might be taken tomorrow.

Director's Seminars are an opportunity for audiences to get an in-depth theoretical perspective on sustainable and inclusive prosperity. These Seminars are given by academics who are pushing for new ways of thinking and new ways of researching society's grand challenges.

For more events in this series visit the series page ►

About IGP UK Week

For our 10th Anniversary, we're organising a full week of events to celebrate the work we've been doing in the UK, led by our Prosperity Co-Lab for the UK. The week will include the launch of the Citizen Prosperity Index and Dashboard, with presentations on the latest findings from our Prosperity in east London longitudinal study.

For more events in this series visit the UK Week page ►