The seminar series "Overlooked Cities: Thinking and doing global urban studies differently" aims to:
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Establish a common understanding and dialogue between the concepts of overlooked and ordinary cities, thereby grounding discussions in historical and contemporary debates;
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Connect academics, practitioners and early career researchers working in, and on, overlooked cities to build a common agenda for counter-overlooking in global urban studies; and
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Map the urban conditions that are overlooked and question their implications for planning policy and praxis.
The purpose of the final event hosted by Durham University is to reflect on, and expand, our previous conversations in Bandung and Bloemfontein and consider: what now, where do we go from here? We no longer need to say that overlooked cities matter (Ruszczyk et al., 2021; Nugraha et al., 2022). In emerging research on overlookedness, there is a sensibility, an act of care. We believe there needs to be a particular focus on relations between cities and within cities, as well as the power relations in urban spaces. We need to continue to push to do research differently.
The seminar will anchor our discussions on these relations and the ethos of research on overlookedness by learning from cities and towns of North East England, including Newcastle and Bishop Auckland.
The questions we pose to our invitees and collaborators are:
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What does overlookedness look like in your work?
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Where does overlookedness go to now?