ACC is excited to host representatives from Mistra Urban Futures who will be presenting on their forthcoming book entitled ‘Rethinking Sustainable Cities: from slogan to implementation’.
Overview
Mistra Urban Futures’ forthcoming book provides detailed intellectual and practical histories of fair, green and accessible cities – three key urban characteristics chosen to symbolise the research centre’s approach, which utilises transdisciplinary co-production methodologies to promote sustainable urban solutions to specific local problems in each of its research platforms. These characteristics suffuse MUF’s work and Strategic Plan for 2016-19. David Simon will explain these agendas, focusing particularly on the origins and current nature of urban greening discourses and the challenges to implementation to ensure that they make a substantive as opposed to purely marginal or incremental difference. Sue Parnell will do likewise in relation to fair cities.
Bios
David Simon joined Mistra Urban Futures in September 2014 from Royal Holloway, University of London, where he still holds a part-time appointment as Professor of Development Geography. He was Head of theGeography Department there from 2008-11. He has vast international experience including grant-funded research on sub-Saharan Africa (especially Namibia, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana), Asia (especially Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Philippines), the UK and the USA. He has also served as specialist advisor to UN-HABITAT on cities and climate change, was one of only two academics on the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s specialist Africa Advisory Group prior to its disbandment, and has consulted for various NGOs and national and international development agencies. Furthermore, he is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.
Susan Parnell’s early academic research was in the area of urban historical geography and focussed on the rise of racial residential segregation and the impact of colonialism on urbanisation and town planning in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1994 and democracy in South Africa her work has shifted to contemporary urban policy research (local government, poverty reduction and urban environmental justice). By its nature this research is not been purely academic, but has involved liasing with local and national government and international donors. Sue is also on the boards of several local NGOs concerned with poverty alleviation, sustainability and gender equity in post-apartheid South Africa. She serves on a number of national and international advisory research panels relating to urban reconstruction.