Urban Political Podcast

What is "New Municipalism"? In this first of a new series Ross seeks clarification from scholar-activists Bertie Russell and Matt Thompson who give us a conceptual and historical take on this new urban movement, offering reflections on UK examples like Preston. The interview was recorded at the end of August 2019 at the Royal Geographers Society / Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference Annual Conference in London. **Guests:** **Dr Bertie Russell** is a research associate at the University of Sheffield's Urban Institute. He has recently worked on the ESRC Jam & Justice project and as part of MISTRA Urban Futures. His research interests include municipalism (with a recent paper in Antipode entitled [Beyond the Local Trap: New Municipalism and the Rise of the Fearless Cities](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/anti.12520) and a forthcoming paper in [Soundings](https://www.lwbooks.co.uk/soundings)) and new models of economic democracy (with a recent co-authored policy report published by

Roger Keil's new book, 'Suburban Planet', is a major contribution to (re)thinking the urban age in terms its peripheries rather than its centres. He seeks to provide us with a way of coming to terms with the process of suburbanization and the diversity of suburban forms. But does he succeed? And what are the political implications of his arguments? Listen to our book forum with Theresa Enright (University of Toronto), Berenice Bon (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, Paris), Philippe Koch (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) and Roger Keil (York University, Canada).

We are living on a suburban planet, if you ask Roger. He even wrote a book with that title. In the interview, he elaborates on the political implications of that condition. Situating his work on global suburbanisms in relation to the L.A. School and the debate around planetary urbanization, he flexes his intellectual muscles to make us believe that it is the suburbs that Marx and Lefebvre would pay most attention to today. Plus, find out about his surprise as Markus read a book passage back to him. “I must have been high on something when I wrote that.” Roger Keil is a Professor at the Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University in Toronto. He researches global suburbanization, urban political ecology, cities and infectious disease, and regional governance. Keil is the author of "Suburban Planet" (Polity 2018) and editor of "Suburban Constellations" (Jovis 2013). A co-founder of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA), he was the inaugural director of the CITY Institute at York

The call to make academic research more socially relevant has become a commonplace. But what does it mean to for academic research to benefit urban activism? What is to be done when the logics of academia obstruct deeper activist engagements? This roundtable engages these challenges with four seasoned activist-scholars. Kate and Uli work in academia using different strategies to relate their job with activist engagements. Tomislav and Richard both have a background in urban research and have entered local politics. Tomislav recently entered Zagreb city council as a member of the opposition and Richard became part of the Zurich city government. Discussion ensues among the participants about the prospects of straddling the requirements of research and action. A controversial and collegial late-night open-air wine-panel in the context of the INURA (International Network for Urban Research and Action) conference in Zagreb in July 2019. Participants: Richard Wolff is an urban researcher and activist from Sw

Part 2: Regaining Democratic Control The second part examines the extent to which democratic control has been exerted in the Checkpoint Charlie case and how development plans have been modified under increased pressure from societal groups. Listen to hear about the possibilities of contesting tourist-centred developments in inner cities and why activists should never automatically trust a leftwing government… Our studio guest: Christoph Sommer is completing his PhD in geography at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU Berlin); using Berlin as case, he is exploring how conflict-prone urban tourism is (un-)governed. He is co-founder of the Urban Research Group New Urban Tourism at the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies (HU Berlin) and recently co-edited the book Tourism and Everyday Life in the Contemporary City.