Urban Informality Urban Informality - An Introduction; This book provides an introductory overview to the concept of ‘urban informality’, taking an international perspective across the global North and South. It explor...

You can read the book here: bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/urban-inform...

Melanie Lombard and I are delighted to have received the 2025 AESOP - Association of European Schools of Planning Prize for Excellence in Teaching for our module "Urban Informality" and our related book "Urban Informality: An Introduction." Read more here: aesop-planning.eu/resources/ne...

Picket line outside the Jessop west building in the sunshine

Picket line outside the geography and planning building in the sunshine

Picket line outside the arts tower in the sunshine

Picket line outside firth court in the sunshine

Our members out in force today! 👊

@sheffieldurbanism.bsky.social @lag-uk.bsky.social @slaslatam.bsky.social @jlatamgeog.bsky.social

Check out our recently published Otros Saberes Toolkit (www.contested-territories.net/toolkit-otro...) – an overview of 24 experiences in Europe and Latin America that engage with alternative forms of territorial knowledge, particularly those marginalized by hegemonic academic and policy frameworks.

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity.

TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

Great initiative! Look forward to the first episode and to see what made it onto the Urban Radar in February 2025.

In search of the ancient Amazonians who left only eerie forest islands In Llanos de Moxos, an expanse of floodplains fringing the Bolivian rainforest, strange clumps of trees offer clues about a lost civilisation

In the middle of Bolivia’s worst fire season, I went with @umbamoxos.bsky.social to the scorched plains on edge of the Amazon, where archaeologists are drilling into the deep history of the mysterious forest islands.

For @thetimes.com

www.thetimes.com/world/latin-...

Memories in the water: a testimony from Xochistlahuaca | City Journal Online https://youtu.be/MqHHaKRzAy0Memories in the Water: A Testimony from Xochistlahuaca-Dr Ulises Moreno-Tabarez-Dr Dulce María Quintero RomeroWater is more

"Memories in the Water: A Testimony from Xochistlahuaca" – In our latest #CoastalCommons video-blog, four voices—a child, a young woman, an adult woman, and a trans woman—share memories and *affects* tied to the rivers of Costa Chica. @urbanstudiesfoundation.org

cityjournal.online/memories-in-...

Geography for everyone? - Geographical Association The GA has published the Geography for everyone? research report, which explores diversity and inclusion from a range of perspectives...

Geography for Everyone?

Despite growing diversity at GCSE, at A level & uni #geography is one of the least diverse subjects.

The subject, & its institutions, are not serving all teachers nor all young people. Change is needed.

Read the full report ⤵️

geography.org.uk/geography-fo...

Cardiff: University confirms plans to cut 400 jobs Vice-chancellor Wendy Larner says

The first domino in what will surely be a cascade. The uni sector needs some radical new political impetus, and quickly

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We're delighted to be formally launching Sheffield Urbanism next week with a series of public events (alongside internal workshops to cook up future plans...)

All of the below are open to the public, see below for details on how to sign up!

Focusing on the lived experience of youth activists with whom we collaborated, we propose a conceptual framework that moves beyond rural-urban binary representations of indigenous territories and offers an alternative unbounded perspective on "life on the move"

2024 finished with a new article (in Spanish) cowritten with colleagues from the UK and Bolivia. It's called: Multilocality and related identity challenges of Indigenous youth in Bolivia

p3.usal.edu.ar/index.php/mi...

...algo que no se capta suficientemente en los debates sobre indigenismo, migración y estudios urbanos.

Centrado en la experiencia cotidiana por jóvenes activistas con los que hemos colaborado, nuestra contribucion conceptual va más allá de las representaciones binarias rural-urbano de los territorios indígenas y ofrece una perspectiva alternativa sin límites sobre la «vida en movimiento»...

2024 terminó con un nuevo artículo coescrito con colegas del Reino Unido y Bolivia. Se titula: La multilocalidad y los desafíos identitarios de jóvenes indígenas en Bolivia

p3.usal.edu.ar/index.php/mi...

‘There was so much fear’: the battle to keep children out of Colombia’s armed gangs War Child supports Indigenous community efforts to protect youth from recruitment into war for drugs and gold • Donate to our charity appeal here The road out of Caloto winds through a lush valley dotted with fields of grazing cows, then into hills past…

‘There was so much fear’: the battle to keep children out of Colombia’s armed gangs

I travelled up and down the UK this year. One album sums up what I saw | John Harris Weariness, confusion, flashes of anger – for me, English Teacher’s lyrics evoke the texture of British life today, says Guardian columnist John Harris

Latest from me: this year, the time I spent travelling around a surreal, forlorn, often broken country was brilliantly soundtracked by English Teacher's This Could Be Texas, an album for our times www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Housebuilders supply only half of promised nature-friendly features, survey finds Developers in England deliver 53% of features such as trees and bird boxes demanded in planning permissions, study says

On the day of the new NPPF, our report out with @wildjustice.bsky.social shows how housebuilders are failing to protect nature. Across 42 new estates we audited only a half of the ecological features they promised are in place. #NPPF #planning #wildlife

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The year in an unequal world, in 3 works of fiction Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton You want to read this book because you want to combine your interest in the rise of a disconnected and sociopathic class of billionaires with your desire for high qualit…

Year in an unequal and disturbing world - I wrote micro reviews of three books that inspired me this year.

alphacity.blog/2024/12/11/t...

Last Friday we were joined by Paula Meth from @uofglasgow.bsky.social for the launch of ‘Living the Urban Periphery’, co-authored with @goodfellowtom.bsky.social and a range of other authors!

With fantastic discussant comments from @philipphorn.bsky.social

NB the book is free & open access online!

After four intense years, our project on Community Energy and the Sustainable Energy Transition (CESET) came to an end in September. We came together with this wonderful team of international researchers to share our collective learnings. Watch it here:

youtube.com/watch?v=uY1l...

Are you a Bolivianist? Follow our starter pack, and drop me a note if you'd like to join it! go.bsky.app/Pf4B9yW

Colombia outlaws child marriage after 17-year campaign Country closes 137-year legal loophole, becoming one of 12 in Latin America and the Caribbean to entirely ban marriage for minors

"Colombia outlaws child marriage after 17-year campaign"

www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Recommend diving into Altopía whilst listening to Dominik Eulberg's "Avichrome", a word meaning bird colours, that offers an electronic expedition into ornithology...https://dominikeulberg.bandcamp.com/album/avichrom

Spending my weekend re-reading through Ale Barrientos's and Joaquin Cuevas's "Altopía" which offers such a rich account of urban Aymara (indigenous) futurism (www.gokongo.co/comic/15_alt...).

Lego cafe

Lego cafe

@sheffielduni.bsky.social #Geography and #planning I teach on a module called Environmental Justice at a time of crisis. Today we designed student cafe spaces with #lego. There were circular economies, sharing spaces, accessibility and transport links, and an energy producing dance floor with a DJ.

If you’re looking for some weekend listening, download The Trapped.

A shocking expose of the country you really live in. A 4 year investigation in 1 podcast. You won’t regret it.

thetrapped.co.uk

Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/7vwTNdv...

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Three things I’ve learned about writing I’ve thinking about the process of writing lately, partly as a result of conversations with different people about how they write. So, apropos of nothing, and on the off chance that this may …

Been thinking about the process of writing lately, partly as a result of chats with different people about how they write. So, apropos of nothing, & on the off chance that this may be of use to someone, here’s three quick things I’ve learnt about writing:
cityfragment.wordpress.com/2024/11/22/t...