On 28-29 August 2009 in Manchester, activist geographers from around the world will share experiences, insights and methods in relation to defending people’s ‘right to stay put’ and resisting gentrification, displacement and privatisation as part of urban regeneration schemes.
The Right to Stay Put: Contesting Displacement in Urban Regeneration is being organised by Chris Allen (Manchester Metropolitan University), Lee Crookes (University of Sheffield), Stuart Hodkinson (University of Leeds), and Tom Slater (University of Edinburgh). It is taking place as a fringe event of the Royal Geographical Society / Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference – see www.rgs.org
Inspired by Chester Hartman’s notion of the ‘right to stay put’ for lower income group struggles against gentrification, the conference takes place at a time when gentrification and related processes of privatisation and marketisation have become integral to neoliberal urban strategies across the world. Despite this proliferation, academics have generally responded poorly to Hartman’s call to arms. Rather, as Slater observes (2006, 2008), gentrification research has generally lost its critical edge, and from some quarters gentrification has even been celebrated as beneficial to incumbent low-income groups (Freeman, 2006; Vigdor, 2002).
The aim of the event is to restore Hartman’s principle to the heart of gentrification research by inviting contributions from activist geographers in the widest sense of the term (academics, teachers, housing professionals, campaigners, trade unionists and ordinary residents) to share and exchange their experiences, insights and methods to better defend people’s ‘right to stay put’.
In the spirit of making geography ‘relevant’ beyond the policy-academy complex, the session will have a practical orientation and will offer reflections, stories, tactics, lessons and strategies for developing successful urban resistances. The aims are to: (1) share experiences and develop practical knowledges about what works in urban resistance; (2) create an educational space for encounter and dialogue between those involved in similar critical work and activism; and (3) start to develop an action research network and a knowledge/resource base for wider dissemination.
A variety of speakers will recount stories of regeneration and resistance from around the world, including London, Berlin, Zurich, Mumbai, Istanbul, Toronto, Dublin, Chicago, Glasgow, Melbourne, South Africa, Möllevången as well as addressing questions of building (un)successful local and global networks of opposition and creating alternatives. It will be followed by a tour of Manchester’s urban development and struggles, and then a social-benefit event in the evening with films.
Full details, including venue directions and programme, on www.autonomousgeographies.org/righttostayput
— Stuart Hodkinson
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On 28-29 August 2009 in Manchester, activist geographers from around the world will share experiences, insights and methods in relation to defending people’s ‘right to stay put’ and resisting gentrification, displacement and privatisation as part of urban regeneration schemes.
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