In this feature, Tom and Beth discuss the Global Infrastructure Race with colleagues from the Urban Institute (UI), recorded live as part of the UI’s 10 year anniversary celebrations. Drawing on insights emerging from the GlobalCORRIDOR and Pluralize projects, Jon Silver, Zhengli Huang and Linda Westman share their interpretation of the Global Infrastructure Race, its urban impacts and how we can centre and decentre the role of China. Specifically they discuss:

• What is the Global Infrastructure Race and how can we understand its diverse geopolitical and economic manifestations?
• How can historical and contemporary analysis help unpack the role of China and Chinese investments?
• What are the impacts on cities and urban inequalities of these activities in and beyond China?             

Guests

Professor Jon Silver is an urban geographer interested in the uneven ways in which infrastructure is planned, operationalised and experienced, working across a range of cities in the global norths and south. He leads the GlobalCORRIDOR project.

Dr Zhengli Huang works on Chinese investment in infrastructure across Africa. She worked and lived in Kenya and her fieldwork experience extends to Ethiopia, Uganda, Zambia, and Mozambique. She works on GlobalCORRIDOR and Pluralize. 

Dr Linda Westman focusses on climate politics, urban transformation, and sustainability discourses, including the policy/governance aspects of low-carbon development in cities in China. She leads the Pluralize project. 

Read More 

The Material Geographies of the Belt and Road Initiative

Governing Climate Change in a Changing World 

Chinese Economic Zones in Africa

Funding

GlobalCORRIDOR (ID: 947779) funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

Pluralize was originally granted by the HORIZON Call: ERC-2022-STG and funded by UKRI (EP/Y00020X/1).

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

Released to coincide with World Cities Day on 31 October, this episode sees Beth and Tom first joined by Prof. Matthew Flinders (26:09) to discuss what the rise in fortunes of the Green Party, UK, under Zack Polanski, means for progressive politics in the UK, and for a city like Sheffield. Then, with Said Zaaneen (51:46), they dive into what the history of refugee camps in the Gaza strip tells us about the role of international humanitarian aid, and consider implications for future reconstruction. 

Also on our radar:

• The ongoing impacts of Brexit on Northern cities
• Rats and multi-species urban life
• Urbanisation, colonisation, colonialism & outer space
• Cable cars, white elephants and Gen Z protests in Madagascar
• The Louvre heist & the material fabric of the city
• Why New Yorkers are not friends with AI Friend

Guests:

Matthew Flinders is Professor of Politics, Vice-President of the Political Studies Association and Chair of the Universities Policy Engagement Network. A former special advisor in both the House of Lords and House of Commons, he specialises in theoretically-informed policy-relevant research including on accountability, blame and democracy. 

Said Zaaneen is in the final stages of his PhD here at the University of Sheffield on Humanitarian aid, socio-spatial dynamics, and the evolution of refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, focusing particularly on two specific camps in Gaza - Jabalia and Deir Al Balah. Said also has an MSc in Management and Implementation of Development Projects from the University of Manchester, and prior to his PhD had more than 10 years experience working in humanitarian and development projects in the Gaza Strip.

Read More:

Madagascar protests: how ousted president Andry Rajoelina’s urban agenda backfired

Decolonial Museology, Space Travel and the Mineral Cabinet | Museum & Society

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this first stand-alone feature, Tom and Beth introduce an uncut conversation with Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram - the Mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region in the North of England, recorded at Sheffield's Festival of Debate.

The conversation was chaired by Beth at the Octagon Theatre, and focussed on Andy and Steve's 10-point plan for a fairer, more equal Britain, set out in their book Head North: A Rallying Cry for a More Equal Britain (2024). In the discussion, they reveal how their time spent as MPs in Westminster convinced them that devolution is the answer to a fairer future and a balancing of power and resources.

The feature starts at 5:22 and is followed by a short analysis from Tom and Beth reflecting on whether the German model of federalism does hold the answers to addressing regional inequalities in England, the differences between de-concentration, decentralisation and devolution, and the wider role of the 'Global North' in addressing world-wide inequalities. 

Speakers:

Andy Burnham was elected Mayor of Greater Manchester in May 2017, and was re-elected for a second term in May 2021 to chair the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Prior to this, Andy was MP for Leigh from 2001. In Government, Andy has held Ministerial positions at the Home Office, Department of Health and the Treasury. In 2008 he became Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, where he met Steve. 

Steve Rotheram was elected metro-mayor of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in May 2017 and was re-elected in May 2024. Steve held the ceremonial title of Lord Mayor of Liverpool during the city’s European Capital of Culture year. He then served as Labour MP for Liverpool Walton from 2010 to 2017, where he led campaigns for justice for the Hillsborough families.

Credits:

Thanks to Festival of Debate for hosting the conversation and to festival organisers, Opus Independents, for the opportunity.

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this month’s Radar, we dive into the issue of community power - the energy kind! - with Dr Jayne Carrick (22:28), before discussing how a new pope (or an AI confession box!) will alter relations between religion, faith and the city with Dr Krzysztof Nawratek (35:26). On our urban radar (02:41) we also consider: 

• The UK government’s Immigration White Paper and the ‘local impacts’ of international student recruitment
• Race and space in Trump’s welcoming of white South African ‘refugees’
• Urbicide in Gaza and its historical antecedents
• Gambling and its urban discontents 
• The urban impacts of deconcentrating central government departments outside London 

Guests

Jayne Carrick is a researcher in the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre, and School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations. Her work is intended to improve efforts to engage public stakeholders in environmental and climate change policy making.

Krzysztof Nawratek is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Landscape, and UI Associate. His Future Faith(s) project looks at religions, spaces & innovations in the city, building on work in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Key references

Technocapitalism w/Sami Moisio & Ugo Rossi, host Remi Edwards (SPERI podcast)

Beirut Urban Lab

Roger Southall (Conversation)

Rob Davies (Guardian)

Views from the Centre

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this month's bumper episode we are joined by Malcolm Tait, Kiera Chapman and Hugh Ellis for a feature (45:13) on the UK government's planning reforms, how we can save nature and whether we need more utopian thinking to engage citizens in planning for sustainable communities. 

With Liz Sharp and Antonio Navas, Tom and Beth also dive into the local impacts of the UK's water crisis (20:35) and the urban impacts of tariff wars (33:37). 

Also on our radar (3:15):

• How levels of urbanization impact on Myanmar's earthquake resilience, and man-made factors shaping urban crisis 
• Paris city hall's anti-tagging campaign, and the implications for graffiti and protest art in urban public space
• Does Gen Z struggle to pick up the phone? The importance of communication amongst strangers to city life 
• The potential impacts of closing embassies in cities abroad on diplomatic relations globally 

Guests:

Liz Sharp is a Professor of Water and Planning in the School of Geography and Planning. She is an environmental social scientist whose work supports practical interventions related to water supply, waste and flooding. 

Antonio Navas is a Lecturer in the School of Economics. His work focuses on international trade, foreign direct investment and technology adoption. 

Malcolm Tait is Professor of Planning in the School of Geography and Planning.  He leads the  Planning for Nature project, and is interested in how planning relates to ecology, housing, and urban renewal.

Hugh Ellis is the Director of Policy for the Town and Country Planning Association and Honorary Professor of Utopian Studies (according to the website) at the University of Sheffield. 

Kiera Chapman is an author and Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She was lead author on the Lost Nature report for Wild Justice.

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

This month’s special feature focuses on the rise of authoritarianism in cities (34:48).  What are the strategies and tactics that authoritarian regimes might use to control their capital cities? Beth and Tom are joined by David Jackman to discuss the insights provided in his edited book with Tom, as well as a discussion of urban political dynamics in Bangladesh - the subject of David's other new book. 

With Miguel Kanai and Hannah Lewis, they dive into urban interventions to address air pollution (13:17) and discuss the UK’s hostile asylum regime and how Cities of Sanctuary can help (22:59).

Also on our radar (2:51):

• Looming war in the Horn of Africa, and the role of cities and towns
• AI facial scanning technologies in Sheffield, and its potential risks
• Student protests in Serbia and their link to major urban investments
• The challenges of urban infrastructure - from water shortages to potholes in Johannesburg and UK cities

Tune in now for a jam-packed informative episode brought to you by Sheffield Urbanism. 

Guests:

Miguel Kanai is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography and Planning. His work examines the urbanisation of the world under contemporary globalised capitalism and implications for communities in the Global South. 

Hannah Lewis is a Senior Lecturer in Sociological Studies. Her recent work has explored how the social and legal status of migrants can create lasting insecurities and vulnerabilities to poverty and social exclusion. 

David Jackman is a Lecturer in Development Studies at the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID). His recent book ‘Syndicates and Societies’ explores life in Kawran Bazar, in Dhaka, and offers a new approach to understanding the nexus of urban life, crime and politics.

Read more:

Green fences for Buenos Aires: implementing green infrastructure for (more than) air quality

Faith, bordering and modern slavery: A UK case study

Controlling the Capital: Political Dominance in the Urbanizing World

Syndicates and Societies: Criminal Politics in Dhaka

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this month's feature (21:09), Tom & Beth turn their attention to Manchester’s model of property-led development. As the UK government pins hopes on enabling greater private sector investment to boost economic growth, can the 'Manchester model' deliver the expected outcomes? They are joined by Adam Leaver and Richard Goulding to discuss their new report, co-authored with Jon Silver, on the "Centripetal City: A Critique of Supply-Side Urban Development". 

In our wrap-up of what’s on our radar (01:49) we also cover:

• What fatbergs and sinkholes tell us about the urban underground 
• How Artificial Intelligence might affect  urban culture
• The spatial implications of UK cuts to aid to finance defence spending 

And, with Madeleine Pill, we dive (08:23) into the urban dimensions of the German elections and the governance questions that sit behind current concern about local government finances in England. 

Guests:

Madeleine Pill is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography & Planning. Her work takes a critical approach to the theory and practice of governance and policy at the urban/ local/ neighbourhood scales. 

Adam Leaver is Professor in Accounting & Society and Director of the Centre for Research on Accounting and Finance in Context (CRAFIC). Adam’s primary research interest is in the financialization of the firm. 

Richard Goulding is a Lecturer at the Management School. His interests lie in the interaction between finance, social reproduction and urban space, exploring how these combine to shape housing geographies.

Feature References:

New report critiques supply-side urban development | CRAFiC | The University of Sheffield

The Rentier City: Manchester and the Making of the Neoliberal Metropolis - Repeater Books

The Greater Manchester Gentrification Index

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

On this month's Urban Radar, Beth & Tom zoom in on:

• Why recognising the rights of a New Zealand mountain is an urban issue 
• Conflict in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and its impacts on the city of Goma
• How cutting US international development funding will impact cities 
• Whether ‘more-than-schools’ can offer community level responses to the crisis in young people and children’s mental health
• Waste tipping in Litchfield, UK

And in our Special Feature (24:20) on Cities and Climate Change, they are joined by Vanesa Castán Broto and David Dodman, two external authors of the UN-Habitat World Cities Report to discuss:

What role do cities and local governments have in addressing climate change?Which communities are impacted most by climate change? What is a just transition? How do formal and informal systems at local, national and international levels support or hinder low carbon action? 

Guests:

Vanesa Castán Broto is Professor of Climate Urbanism at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the governance of global environmental change in an age of urbanization. She leads the JustGESI project which aims to advance equality and inclusion in community energy projects and policy frameworks, by addressing the skills gaps that have historically kept women and marginalised groups out of the clean energy economy.

David Dodman is the General Director at The Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, a key global institution on education, research and policy work on urban development since its foundation 65 years ago. He has worked on sustainable urban development research in universities and research institutes for the past 20 years. His research interests focus on urban climate change resilience and informality.

Guest editor:

Linda Westman is a Senior Research Fellow at the Urban Institute. Her research revolves around environmental politics, with a focus on urban climate governance, transformations, and justice. She leads a European Research Council project on just transitions in the context of environmental politics in China.

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this trailer, we set out the background to Urban Radar, the format of the show and the main questions that we will explore. 

Urban Radar is a podcast series which reflects on current events and emerging trends through the lens of cities and urban life. It is brought to you by Sheffield Urbanism, a community of urban researchers in the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Sheffield, UK. 

Urban Radar places urban dynamics at the centre of contemporary global affairs. In each episode we scan the news to bring unique urban perspectives into the issues that shape our world. We will invite members of our research community to provide evidence-based informed insights into the ways that cities and urban communities are impacted by, driving and responding to current events.

We will also include special features that profile cutting-edge research and analysis happening within and beyond the Sheffield Urbanism community. These link to the overarching questions we will explore in the podcast, including: 

• How can urban research help to build solidarity and a sense of belonging in the face of rising individualism, consumerism, and capital accumulation?
• How can we foster place-based innovation to harness technological developments as tools to address inequalities between different groups within and across urban areas? 
• What potential does urban political mobilisation have to transform power relations in a world characterised by authoritarianism and oligarchy? And what are its limits?
• Whose knowledge and expertise - human, non-human and artificial - gets to determine the way we live together in urban space?
• How can and do urban communities re-imagine cities as spaces of environmental justice and sustainable inhabitation?

Join us each month as we attempt to decode some of the events and issues on our urban radar - and if you want to know more, follow Sheffield Urbanism on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

CREDITS:

Podcast production, presentation and editing: Tom Goodfellow and Beth Perry 

Post-production editing and marketing: Polly Clifton

Training and production support: Jack Clayton

Distribution, promotion and marketing: Riya Singh and Vicky Simpson

Music: Horizon (original music by Tom Goodfellow, recorded and produced by Alan Thomson)

Podcast Cover: Dan Farley Designs

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this month’s feature Tom and Beth are joined by two leading scholars of the urban condition - Ash Amin and AbdouMaliq Simone - to reflect on questions of inclusion and belonging in the search for the 'good city'. Building on their collaborative work for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research's Humanity's Urban Future programme, our guests consider: 

• Are ideas of the good city still relevant in face of worsening inequality, segregation and individualism?
• Can a progressive politics of belonging overcome these divisions in a renewed urban public sphere? 
• And, as Black History Month draws to an end, how might ideas of ‘black urbanism’ inform and enrich the field of urban studies?

Guests

AbdouMaliq Simone works on issues of spatial composition in extended urban regions, the production of everyday life for urban majorities in the Global South, infrastructural imaginaries, collective affect, global blackness, and histories of the present for Muslim working classes. He is Professor Emeritus at the Urban Institute (University of Sheffield) and co-director of the Beyond Inhabitation Lab, Polytechnic University of Turin. In this episode he draws on themes explored in his work including The Surrounds: Urban Life within and beyond Capture and Improvised Lives. 

Professor Amin (University of Cambridge) is known for his work on the geographies of modern living: cities and regions as relationally constituted; globalisation, race and multiculture as a hybrid of biopolitics, and vernacular practices. He was founding co-editor of the Review of International Political Economy, is associate editor of City and is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences.  In this episode we discuss his recent book After Nativism: Belonging in an Age of Intolerance and refer back to previous work including Seeing Like a City.

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

This month we are joined by Dr Sam Burgum & Professor Simon Rushton to dive into what the new UK Minister for Homelessness should have on their agenda (27:50) and how we can understand the wider socio-economic issues shaping the recent Gen Z uprising in Nepal (50:08). 

Cutting across our discussions are questions of conflict over and in urban territory, federalism and decentralisation and how best to meet basic needs - such as shelter, health or security at the local (and national) level.

Also on our radar:

• What does the new US-UK tech partnership mean for regional inequalities, and how might this be regulated?
• The implications of extended settlements or 'outposts' in the West Bank
• The urban dynamics of witchcraft 
• What 'Your Party' could learn from New Municipalism
• Cities for cars not people? (and the masculinity of urban planning)
• Who is left to report on local democracy and conflict? The global crisis in press freedom

Guests:

Sam Burgum is a Visiting Researcher at the Urban Institute and works on homelessness, property and trespass. He has written about squatting in London, the city as archive, and the importance of a historical understanding of property ownership and who has the right to urban space.

Simon Rushton is Professor of International Politics in the School of Politics, Sociology and International Relations, working across issues including healthcare in Nepal and peace in Colombia. One recent co-authored book is Participating in Peace with a range of colleagues, and collaborated with CORMEPAZ, Plataforma IAP and PHASE Nepal.

Read More:

Corbyn's Momentum

Beyond the local trap

Becoming common of the public

Roadkill

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this month's episode Tom and Beth discuss the value of translocal learning to address poverty and inequality for women in low income communities in India, Southern Africa, Kenya and the UK. 

Joined by guests Melanie Lombard and Diana Mitlin, they ask:

• What can we learn from informal processes and practices in South Asian and African cities to address social injustice and poverty here in the UK?
• What kinds of trans-national networks can support this work and how do they build solidarities amongst and within low income communities?
• What does this mean for the roles of academics in realising more just cities?

Guests:

Dr Melanie Lombard is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning and Urban Institute Associate at the University of Sheffield. She is particularly interested in urban informality, and urban land and conflict processes. She has explored these themes in cities in Mexico, Colombia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria. Before moving to the University of Sheffield in 2016, she taught at the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute/Global Urban Research Centre (2010-2016). Her previous professional experience includes working in the UK social housing sector. She is a Trustee of CLASS (Community Led Action and Savings Support), a charity supporting the Manchester-based Community Savers network.

Professor Diana Mitlin works in the Global Development Institute | The University of Manchester. From 2020, Diana has been CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium. Diana’s work focuses on urban poverty reduction programmes and the contribution of co-production and collective action by low-income and otherwise disadvantaged groups. She has had a particular research focus on issues of urban basic services, tenure and housing.  Diana works closely with SDI (Slum/Shack Dwellers International), a trans-national network of homeless and landless people’s federations and NGOs.

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

This month we are joined by Drs Christina Tatham & Cathy Wilcock for a post-summer bumper episode. 

First in England, many children are starting school for the first time, including those with English as a second language, against a backdrop of stubborn spatial inequalities in educational outcomes later in life (31:26). 

Then, in the face of civil war and conflict in Sudan, we dive into how urban communities in and beyond national borders are finding ways to build resilience and retain diaspora identities (52:20).  

And on our radar:

• Labubus & counterfeits in the city
• Local variations in policing protests
• Urban mining over time 
• Trump's 'take over' of Washington DC
• The symbolism of flags & roundabouts 
• How cities might survive the loss of their physical territory

Guests:

Dr Christina Tatham is a Lecturer in Early Childhood Education and has written widely on superdiversity and multilingualism in schools, including the use of creative methodologies and the importance of play.

Dr Cathy Wilcock is a post-doctoral researcher in the School of Geography and Planning whose work has focussed on Sudan, South Sudan and the formation and importance of diaspora communities, and music scenes.  

More:

The Pirate Function

Cities Rethought

Despite what The Atlantic says, Sudan is not locked in a war about nothing

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this month’s feature, Beth and Tom are joined by Professors Nausheen Anwar and Mona Fawaz, Directors of the Karachi Urban Lab and Beirut Urban Lab respectively. This feature is a live recording of an in-person event on Urban Research Labs in Times of Conflict and Post-Truth, recorded in July as part of the Sheffield Urbanism Summer Programme. 

This was an ‘in conversation’ event during which Tom and Beth explored the challenges that Mona and Nausheen face running urban labs in the face of persistent conflict, misinformation and authoritarianism. The conversation ranges from the origin and motivation for establishing their research labs, to the ways in which they curate urban data as a public good for advocacy and activism, to some of the specific issues on which they work including housing crises, climate change and migration.

Guest biographies: 

Nausheen Anwar is the Founder and Director of the Karachi Urban Lab (KUL), which was set up in 2016 in a context where data production on the ‘urban’ in Pakistan remains top-down and largely technocratic. The KUL sees its role to fill a ‘gap’ in data/knowledge production from the ground up and in a critically oriented way. Nausheen is also a Professor of City & Regional Planning in the Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts (SSLA), IBA and Urban climate resilience lead and principal researcher, IIED's Human Settlements research group. 

Mona Fawaz is co-founder of the Beirut Urban Lab at the American University of Beirut, a regional research center invested in working towards more inclusive, just, and viable cities. The Lab produces scholarship on urbanization by documenting and analyzing ongoing transformation processes in Lebanon and its region's natural and built environments. It works towards materializing a vision of an ecosystem of change empowered by critical inquiry and engaged research, and driven by committed urban citizens and collectives. Mona is a Professor in Urban Studies and Planning at the American University of Beirut.

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Thanks to AbdouMaliq Simone and the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research Humanity's Urban Future programme for supporting the visit and podcast. 

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this episode we are joined by Dr Katie Pruszynski and Professor Rowland Atkinson to explore how political and wealth elites are reshaping cities from New York to London and beyond. We dive into Zohran Mamdani's journey to becoming the Democratic Party's nominee for Mayor of New York City (25:10) and the pros and cons of increasing tax on the super-rich (47:26), through an urban political tour of truth and wealth.

Also on our radar:

• The loss of pubs  & representations of young people's urban lifestyles
• AI data centres & their potential in low income neighbourhoods
• The past & future of pickpocketing
• Ukrainian cities in reconstruction & resistance
• The urban impacts of extreme heat 
• Celebrities & urban development

Guests:

Dr Katie Pruszynski is a PhD graduate in Political Psychology from the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield. She has written on Donald Trump's 'wedge lies' and the new American oligarchy.

Professor Rowland Atkinson is Chair in Inclusive Societies in the School of Geography and Planning and co-lead of the Urban Institute's Urban Riches theme  at the University of Sheffield. One of his many publications is Alpha City: How London Was Captured by the Super-Rich. 

Read More:

Ukrainians designing the future

Ukraine's strategic neutralization

Mind the Heat Gap

The Northern Agenda

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this month's special feature, Tom and Beth are joined by Simon Marvin and Allan McCay to discuss how advances in neurotechnology - specifically Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) - are changing the way we think about urban infrastructures and human-technology relations in the city. 

We discuss:  

• How can we understand the complex and continuously changing relationship between cities and technology over the last few decades?
• What and where are the new frontiers of urban technology in light of neuro-technological advances, such as Brain Computer Interfaces?
• What are the legal and ethical implications for cities and residents of neurotechnological urbanism, and can science fiction prepare us for what’s to come? 

The feature is followed by a short reflection from Tom and Beth which also draws on an interdisciplinary workshop on Neurotechnically-enabled Urbanism which was hosted by the Urban Institute and the ESRC project 'Experimenting with robotics as a new urban infrastructure', led by Aidan While. 

Guests:

Dr Allan McCay is Co Director of The Sydney Institute of Criminology and an Academic Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School. His first coedited book is Free Will and the Law: New Perspectives (Routledge, 2019) and his second is Neurointerventions and the Law: Regulating Human Mental Capacity (Oxford University Press, 2020). 

Professor Simon Marvin is an internationally recognised academic with an excellent publication profile, with expertise in the changing relations between socio-technical networks and urban and regional restructuring.

Read more:

Elon Musk’s brain implant company offers an intriguing glimpse of an internet connecting human minds

Vulcan (page 38)

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this month’s episode, we are joined by Jenny Preece to dive into the issue of building safety in the context of the recent anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire (22:33). Next, we consider trans rights in the context of Pride month and the impact of the UK’s recent Supreme Court ruling (38:40).

Also on our radar: 

• Bunkers and new forms of subterranean exclusion
• Urban festivals 
• Touristification and the commodification of cities
• The LA riots and urban stigma
• AI propaganda and AI protest
• Vape fires and the disposable vape ban

Dr. Jenny Preece is a Lecturer in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on understanding housing choices and aspirations, particularly in changing contexts and with relevance to issues of constraint and exclusion. I am interested in people's lived experiences of home, and how people experience change, whether in the dwelling itself or the wider neighbourhood.

SJ Cooper-Knock is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations and School of Law at the University of Sheffield. Their work focuses on the politics of urban life in South Africa, including everyday policing and punishment; being and belonging in the city; the politics of crisis; and concepts of urban justice.

Read more:

Artificial Intelligence–Based Aesthetics of Dissent in Turkey

Preece, J. (2025) Inhabiting unsettlement: Living through building safety remediation works in England

Preece, J. and J. Flint. (2024). Unhoming, Trauma and Waiting: The Post-Grenfell Building Safety Crisis in England

Peter Apps (2022) - Show me the Bodies: How we let Grenfell happen.

Stuart Hodkinson (2019) - ‘Safe as houses: Private greed, political negligence and housing policy after Grenfell.’

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this episode we are joined by Professor Julia Moses to consider the working lives and rights of children, and then Dr Dani Madrid-Morales to discuss disinformation and how it plays out across urban and rural areas. Reflecting on World Children's Day on 20 November, we explore children's rights and how these relate to questions of labour, as well as how attitudes to child labour have varied over time and in different national contexts (28:08). Then, in light of recent accusations from Donald Trump towards the BBC's reporting, we delve into the the challenge of misinformation, how it is changing and how it differs spatially across and within urban and rural areas (48:24). 

Also on our radar:

• how policy learning between Denmark and the UK is shaping Labour's new 'hostile environment'
• whether new curbs on ticket touts suggest lessons for wider market regulation
• the deadly response to urban protests in post-election Tanzania 
• how Belem has shaped the agenda and design of COP30
• whether the world is urbanizing faster than we think
• what recent UK statistics on multiple deprivation tell us about urban decline

Guests:

Julia Moses is a Professor of Modern History in the School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities at the University of Sheffield. She is currently leading a project, funded by AHRC, on Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts, with colleagues at the Universities of Edinburgh, Dar es Salaam and Ruhr University Bochum. The call for the virtual exhibition, mentioned in the podcast, is here Virtual Exhibition – Call for Contributions! – Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts.

Dr Dani Madrid Morales is a Lecturer in Journalism and Global Communication in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication at the University of Sheffield. He co-leads the Disinformation Research Cluster in his School. His own work studies the geopolitics of disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from an audience perspective. His latest book on this topic, co-edited with Herman Wasserman, is Disinformation in the Global South (Wiley). Dani also helps curate disinfoafrica.org, a website that brings together research on mis/disinformation in Africa. 

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

This month, we (Beth and Tom) are podding alone, using the final episode of the year to reflect on some of the big themes we’ve discussed in 2025 as well as on the process of making Urban Radar.  We start with our monthly radar for December, dipping into three current stories each as usual. 

Following this we offer some quick-fire thoughts on a number of issues and themes that have resurfaced repeatedly throughout the year and remain prominent as it draws to a close. Finally, we consider some of the highlights of podcasting itself, before unveiling a surprise in store for Series 2…

On our monthly radar for December: 

• Care work and the city - from the UK’s current ‘carers scandal’ to Bogota’s care blocks
• Urban ‘brandalism’, ZAP games and ‘subtervising’ (confused? Head to 9:15 to find out…)
• The decline of trial by jury in the UK and what this might mean for urban justice and efforts to overcome spatial, class and linguistic bias
• America’s new National Security Strategy and how this connects to Trump’s war on urban diversity
• The Australian social media ban and its potentially different ramifications in urban vs rural areas 
• Syrian cities one year after the fall of Assad

On our rapid fire ‘radar of radars’, we consider:

• Military coups and their urban implications
• Technology and public space
• Flag urbanism and the branding of the city
• The UK-Denmark anti-migration love-in
• Solidarity, belonging and ‘urban lawfare’
• The entanglements of local infrastructure and global finance
• Urban warfare, critical minerals and strongman diplomacy

Read More

The Independent Review of Carer's Allowance Overpayments: A Welcome Step Towards Wider Reform of Welfare Benefits for Carers | the Centre for Care

Caring Cities: Towards a Public Urban Culture of Care?

Dismantling the advertising city: Subvertising and the urban commons to come

Activating the playful city: A review of ludic urbanism and introducing the ludic continuum framework

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

Urban Radar is a podcast series which reflects on current events and emerging trends through the lens of cities and urban life.  

Launched in 2025, Urban Radar hit the UK social science podcast charts, and was amongst the top 5% of new podcast entrants (according to one major streaming platform!).  It reached listeners in every continent, over 80 countries and 670 cities. Series 1 included 18 episodes, with 40 guests, including leading urban studies theorists and thinkers, early career scholars and PhD students. 

Series 2 of Urban Radar will continue to place urban dynamics at the centre of contemporary global affairs.  Hosted by Professor Tom Goodfellow and Professor Beth Perry, guests will be drawn from across the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester in a new transpennine collaboration. 

In this Series 2 trailer, Tom and Beth reflect on the first year of recording Urban Radar and share what's coming up in 2026.  

Episodes will be released 1-2 times per month, including a monthly round-up of the urban issues underlying the headlines and in-depth discussions with guests. We will continue to invite members of our research communities to provide evidence-based informed insights into the ways that cities and urban communities are impacted by, driving and responding to current events.

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this first episode of Series 2 of Urban Radar, Beth and Tom start to tackle some of the many ways in which the current moment of geopolitical turmoil is filtering down into in cities and towns across the world. 

We make the most of our new Sheffield-Manchester partnership by bringing on Dr. Erika Garcia Fermin (29:45 minutes onwards) from the University of Manchester's Global Development Institute, for an in-depth conversation on the Venezuala crisis and its urban dimensions. With Erika we delve into Venezuela's recent history and how Hugo Chavez's distinctly urban populist project of redistribution morphed over two decades into extreme authoritarianism, mass population exodus and dysfunctional, disempowered city governments under Maduro. 

We then consider whether and how the dramatic US intervention and removal of Maduro might serve as a window of opportunity for opposition forces in the cities to reverse the tide of authoritarian, centralizing governance. 

Before, this, on our radar (from 05:40) we ponder: 

- The view from Greenland's capital, Nuuk, on potential US invasion and what this tells us about how urban areas are being geopolitically re-mapped

- the approval of plans for a Chinese 'mega-embassy' in London and its local and geopolitical significance

- Overlooked cities and towns in the US affected by Trumpian funding cuts and other 'erasures'

- Reforms to neighbourhood governance in the UK, and the importance of the neighbourhood scale for addressing wider division and challenges to democracy

- Dis/misinformation and crime stats in London, and the growing recognition of the need for urban anti-disinfo strategies 

- Iran's protest and the politics of physically relocating capital cities 

Guest:

Erika Garcia Fermin completed her PhD at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, in 2024. Grounded in questions of urban governance and socio-spatial justice, her work focuses on the politics of value extraction in urban development, especially around urban land, and in how these processes relate to the ways urban spaces are planned, governed, and valued.

Read More:

https://thetruesize.com/

Disinformation in the City: Response Playbook - https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/5060724/Disinformation-in-the-City-Reponse-Playbook_compressed-1.pdf

Controlling the Capital: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/controlling-the-capital-9780192868329?cc=gb&lang=en& 

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this episode Tom and Beth are joined by visiting researchers to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester, Junia Mortimer and Felipe Magalhães. 

They discuss:

• How can we see and understand the city in this geopolitical age of conflict and global uncertainty?
• How can photographs and visual archives make visible the complexities of cities, particularly those in the Global South?
• When seeing directly is not possible, what other approaches can help us analyse the intense volatility of cities impacted by urbanisation and industrialisation processes?
• What do these methods mean for urbanists interested in urban change? What endures, what transforms and how do we validate what counts as knowledge?

Guests:

Junia Mortimer is an Assistant Prof at the Department of Urban Planning at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. She is currently an Urban Studies Foundation International Fellow at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. She has curated exhibitions including Urbanos Arquivos (2023) in Salvador, which won first prize in the 2024 Arquisur Competition and she coordinates the Laboratory of Experiments on Image and Architecture.

Felipe Magalhães is an Assistant Prof at the Department of Geography, UFMG, Brazil and Visiting Fellow at University of Manchester. He has been working on popular and solidarity economies, deindustrialization and extractivism in the Brazilian context. He has recently published in the journals Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, IJURR and Antipode.

Key archives/figures mentioned:

Zumvi Afro-Photographic Archive: Lázaro Roberto.

Roberto Monte Mor

Edneia Aparecida de Souza

Ariella Azoulay

Francisco de Oliveira

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this episode Beth and Tom are joined by Cristina Temenos from the University of Manchester to discuss a wide range of issues from trust in medicine, responses to COVID-19 and experimentation and evidence in localised healthcare settings. Together, they ask:

• Faced with crisis after crisis, how do municipalities deliver public health care in Athens, Santiago and Greater Manchester?
• What forms of experimentation, innovation and alternative provision emerge during crisis, and what does this mean for the role of state and non-state services in addressing the needs of vulnerable populations?
• What does crisis policy-making look like and how is it changing the way we are thinking about evidence and expertise?

Guests:

Cristina Temenos is a Reader in Human Geography, an urban, political geographer, her current project explores how cities are managing intersecting health, economic and social crises to negotiate more just urban futures. Her research is focused on health inequalities and the politics of access to care in cities globally. Working in the field of policy mobilities, she has developed this work in relation to drug use and treatment, public health, housing, economic austerity, environmental sustainability, transport, and climate change.  She has recently published in journals such as Progress in Human Geography, IJURR and Dialogues in Urban Research.

Read More:
Crisis policy-making and revanchist public health politics
The modalities and politics of crisis urbanism
Urban crisis as infrastructure, not event: A view from Beirut
Crisis and the urban imagination
Austerity co-production

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this episode Tom and Beth are joined by Professor Aidan While from the University of Sheffield to explore how robotic urban infrastructures are already reshaping everyday lives, homes and mobilities. 

From self-driving taxis to autonomous delivery drones the size of a lorry, we take a closer look at how experimentation in US cities, across Africa and now in the UK foreshadows the stealthy rise of robots across multiple domains.

Go straight to 37:33 for this discussion.

First in our radar, we cover:

• Leaflet wars in the Gorton and Denton by-election, Greater Manchester
• How space and stigma play out in the Epstein and UK grooming scandals
• What the UK Royal Family have to do with cities 
• Urban foundations & fallouts from the death of Mexican drug lord, El Mencho
• The promise of Spain's approach to regularising undocumented migrants
• How to better assess the vulnerabilities of regions and cities to the green transition

Guests:

Aidan While researches environmental and climate policy, urban technology and future cities, and the politics of planning in the UK and internationally.  This podcast draws on his ESRC project on Robotics as Urban Automation. He has written on sidewalk delivery robots, ecologies of automation, and regulating urban robotics.

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

This month, Tom and Beth are joined by Hannah Sender, University of Sheffield, and Mariam Bazzi, Beirut Urban Lab to discuss how propertied families in small towns in Lebanon have responded to violence and displacement over the past years (Go to 35:04 for guests). 

When left with no savings, and little help to repair and reconstruct after military interventions, property becomes a moral relationship, as much as a personal asset: what ought housing to be used for, when urbicide becomes a core goal of warfare?

Also on our radar:

• Infrastructural causes of flooding in Nairobi
• What Cubans in Miami reveal about how diaspora shape urban politics 
• Banksy's loss of anonymity in an era of surveillance capitalism
• Data centre politics in the French local elections
• Scam centres in Cambodia
• Habermas, an unrecognised urbanist?

Guests:

Hannah Sender is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. Her current research examines land and housing relations in Lebanon. 

Mariam Bazzi is a researcher at the Beirut Urban Lab, working on cultural heritage destruction and reconstruction in Palestine and Lebanon. Previous work included tracking the urbicide in Gaza.

And More:

Compound capitalism - Ivan Franceschini, Ling Li, Mark Bo

Capitalism and conflict at the margins - Xu Peng, Jonathan Goodhand, Patrick Meehan, Naomi Yonder

Habermas and the City - Tommaso Vitale

The Sheffield Declaration (see also episode 4)

Planning and crisis - Mona Fawaz (see also episode 10)

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

Come with us to Johannesburg and Dhaka in this month's feature. Visit the markets and stalls of Jeppe, in inner city Johannesburg, a dynamic ecosystem of informal traders, sometimes called Africa’s shopping Mecca. Head with us to Korail, an informal settlement of 300,000 dwellers, sometimes called Bangladesh’s largest slum.

In this double book talk, we are joined by two critically-acclaimed authors. With Tanya Zack we discuss her book The Chaos Precinct: Johannesburg as a Port City, a narrative of how migrant Ethiopians have shaped this trading post in the inner city. With Tanzil Shafique we explore his book City of Desire: An Urban Biography of the Largest Slum in Bangladesh which challenges what and how we know the different desires of settlement-dwellers. 

Together we consider:

• how global-local dynamics shape and are shaped by different urban places around the world 
• how formal and informal spaces in cities are managed, policed and regulated
• the epistemic politics and positions of doing urban research

Guests

Tanya Zack is a South African urban planner and writer whose work has focused on urban regeneration, contemporary migration, informal work, urban policy and affordable housing. Her writing in Wake Up This Is Joburg (Duke University Press, 2022) has been lauded for being amongst the freshest and most original material on an African city. It was included in the longlist of the 2024 Sunday Times/Exclusive Books Literary Awards. The products of her professional practice in Johannesburg's inner city, including an inner-city transformation policy, and a study of cross border shopping, are recognised as ground-
breaking interventions. 

Tanzil is Senior Lecturer of Urban Design at the Sheffield School of Architecture and Associate of the Urban Institute. Tanzil’s research looks at southern urbanism, pluriversal architectural practice and informal planning, mainly focusing on the ongoing adaptation and transformation due to climate change led by the local citizens. He is currently leading a dweller-led urban wetland restoration stewardship project in Dhaka and co-convenes the Platform for Just Housing (Najjyo Abashon Moncho or NAM), which works towards housing and climate justice with local activists and citizens.

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this episode, Beth and Tom are joined by Ryan Bellinson, researcher/civil servant living in Portland, Oregon, US, to discuss how residents and community groups can mobilise their power to resist democratic backsliding.

From Minneapolis to Portland federal immigration enforcement agents have been deploying hostile tactics to identify and seek to deport migrants, even those of legal status. Meanwhile federal programmes of support from housing to environmental protection are being slashed in part to finance massive increases in defence spending. The asymmetry between authoritarian and progressive forces is increasing. In this context, what powers and levers remain for grassroots groups and public bodies to push back?

Go straight to 33:13 for this conversation. 

First, on the radar, they discuss:

• Whether implementing Palantir's federal data platform in Sheffield could exacerbate health inequalities 
• What the Hillsborough Law has in common with ritualistic dunking in Trento, Italy
• Food security in the context of the closure of the straits of Hormuz
• Whether 'adopting' cities marks a new approach to post-war aid & reconstruction in Mykolaiv, Ukraine
• Pope versus Trump: appeals to authority and the role of religion in African cities
• Real estate in and around New York - what the media does and doesn't cover 

Guests:

Ryan Bellinson is a former PhD student of the University of Sheffield and is now Community Innovation Strategist at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. He also co-leads the new Governing Together programme, working with Dark Matter Labs, and is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Cities, Climate and Innovation at University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

Read more:

Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People

Nation of Neighbours

Religious Urbanisation

Public Banking Project

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this episode - recorded on location in Kampala, Uganda during an African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) workshop in late April - we delve into questions of how urban communities in informal settlements can build power through their own forms of knowledge and data collection, and how two-way exchanges between cities can strengthen this process. 

For the main discussion, Tom was there in person with two of the research programme’s ‘City Manager’s - Jack Makau (City Manager for Nairobi) and Temilade Sesan (City Manager for Lagos). The discussion is first introduced by Beth and Tom who set the scene and provide some background, and following the main conversation they also offer concluding reflections. 

In this episode, we explore: 

• How can community-led data collection and analysis help to shift the levers of urban power?
• What role can action research play in changing the attitudes of governments towards the urban poor?
• How can we move from individual to collective solutions through community action and transnational learning?

Along the way, we consider how co-produced urban research with communities changes the kinds of questions we ask as researchers; the challenges of bringing government to the table to take community priorities seriously; and the role of civil society organizations and universities as intermediaries in this process.

Those interested in the issues and processes discussed here can delve further into the history through our discussion with Diana Mitlin in Episode 12 on 'Urban Informality and Translocal Learning'.

Jack Makau is Associate director of Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) Kenya, and ACRC City Manager for Nairobi. In the course of his decades of work with SDI, he has worked to support communities collect data in over 400 informal settlements in cities across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana, and Bukina Faso.

DR. Temilade Sesan is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law (CPEEL), University of Ibadan, Nigeria - and the ACRC City Manager for Lagos. Her research examines the socioeconomic dimensions of the food-energy-waste nexus in Africa, especially as they intersect with issues of the environment, gender, health and urban planning. 

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

In this episode Beth and Tom are joined by Dr Lotte Hargrave from the University of Manchester to discuss whether psephology - the study of elections and voting behaviour - can predict the next Prime Minister of the UK. 

All eyes are turned on the town of Makerfield in Greater Manchester, where Andy Burnham is making a play to win the constituency and head south - back to Westminster, and (probably) a leadership contest to replace Keir Starmer as UK PM. 

With Lotte we discuss whether we can predict the results of the election, the potential outcomes of a win for Burnham for the Greater Manchester mayoralty and why hyperlocal factors suggest it is all still to play for. 

Go to 27:56 for this discussion.

Also on our radar:

• Whether the UK needs to introduce maximum indoor temperatures for workplaces as urban heat rises
• Rising concern about Ebola in African cities in the shadow of global aid cuts
• Activism and urban organising for domestic workers
• How urbanization is driving the global sand crisis 
• The many faces and contradictions of datacentre resistance
• Housing and the World Urban Forum in Baku, Azerbaijan  

Guest:

Dr Lotte Hargrave is a Lecturer in Quantitative Political Science at the University of Manchester and a contracted psephologist for the BBC Elections Programme. Her research focuses on political behaviour, public opinion, gender and stereotyping in politics, and electoral politics. Before joining Manchester, she was Head of Data Science at the polling company Deltapoll. Website: Dr Lotte Hargrave

From our archives:

Interview with Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram (Episode 6)

The Manchester Model - with Adam Leaver and Rich Goulding (Episode 2)

Read more:

sand — RareEarth_KateDawson

AI Data Centers Are The New Plantations Unless We Build Them Differently - Honolulu Civil Beat

Building Climate Resilient Housing - World Cities Report

Late deciders, higher turnout - The Conversation

Political favourability ratings, May 2026

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast. 

High up in the Andes mountain range, two rivers begin their journeys. Starting in the El Plomo hill, one becomes the Mapocho river travelling though Chile into Santiago, dividing the city in two.  The other makes its way from the Peruvian Andes and develops into a complex network of waters and rivers to become the Amazon basin, one of the longest rivers in the world. Rivers such as these shape and are shaped by the cities they meet.

In this month’s feature Tom and Beth are joined by Dr Olivia Casagrande and Professor Roberto Monte-Mór to ask: 

• What can urbanists learn from studying the Mapocho and Amazon rivers?
• How does thinking with rivers challenge our categories of urbanization, racialization and indigeneity?
• How do creative and visual methods enable us to see or dream with the river differently?

Together they take a fascinating tour, diving into concepts of ‘extended naturalization’ and ‘fluvial epistemic alternatives’; following what river/city intersections mean for metropolitan green-blue planning; unpacking the implications of giving legal rights to rivers and the meanings of indigenous narratives; and how storytelling with and through rivers helps us dream of alternative ways of being and doing. 

Guests

Olivia Casagrande is a social anthropologist engaged in interdisciplinary and collaborative research on inequalities, political and racial violence, the (post)colonial city and alternative urban epistemologies. She is a Lecturer at the School of Geography and Planning, University of Sheffield. She has recently completed an ESRC project with the Epew Collective in Santiago, Chile, which led to multiple creative outputs developed along the Mapocho River, available on Fillke Pewma. Recent works concern questions of authorship and engagements in collaborative research with indigenous groups.

Roberto Monte-Mór is a Professor at the Centre for Development and Regional Planning and Graduate Centre for Architecture and Urbanism at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. His teaching and research focus on economics and urbanism, particularly urbanization, and planning theories, metropolitan and regional planning, urban and regional economics, solidarity economies, spatial organization, and development alternatives in the Amazon. His photography is the basis of a new work with Junia Mortimer on Urban-Nature Archives, which is also discussed in this paper.

From our archives:

Seeing the City: A discussion with Junia Mortimer and Felipe Magalhaes (Episode 20)

Hosts:

Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.  His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441) 

Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast.