SUBURBAN REGENERATION
London Women and Planning Forum Seminar
Jointly convened with the Centre for Suburban Studies, Kingston University
Wednesday 23rd February 2005
2 - 6 pm
The Women’s Library
Old Castle Street
London
E1
www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
Although suburbs are home to 86% of England's population (In Suburbia Report,
2002), they are largely ignored in the debate on the urban renaissance and in
current regeneration policies. In their form and design, suburbs are also
gendered spaces, shaped by assumptions about home, work and family. The
suburban lives of women and men are often very different. Women are more likely
than men to work as well as live in suburbs and to use suburban shops and
public transport. This seminar will investigate why suburbs need to be included
in regeneration policies and the ways in which suburban regeneration can
improve the everyday lives of women. The seminar also considers media and other
representations of women living, and often working, in suburbia.
Suburban regeneration is now on the national agenda. In 1998 the Civic Trust
(www.civictrust.org.uk) began a 5-year Sustainable Suburbs Project, funded by
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and devised a Sustainable Suburbs Toolkit to
assist local authorities in measuring the nature of decline in suburban areas.
In 2002, a report entitled 'In Suburbia' was prepared by the Local Government
Association, the South East England Regional Assembly, the Civic Trust, Bury
Metropolitan Borough Council, London Borough of Harrow, Hampshire County
Council and Rushmoor Borough Council to raise the national profile of suburbs
(www.hants.gov.uk/urbanliving/mew_html/suburbia_html/sub_index.html). Two
speakers at the seminar - Claire Codling from the London Borough of Harrow and
Alex Rook from the Civic Trust - will talk about their work as part of the In
Suburbia National Partnership, focusing on two case studies: East Finchley High
Street and Wealdstone District Centre.
The seminar is jointly convened by the London Women and Planning Forum and the
Centre for Suburban Studies at Kingston University. Established in 2003, the
Centre for Suburban Studies is the first research centre dedicated to the study
of the suburb in the UK, and is the world's first research centre to study the
suburb in cultural, multi- and interdisciplinary terms. The Centre seeks to
define Suburban Studies as 'an important, timely and original area of inquiry
for both the academic and the wider community'
(http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/research/centres/css). Vesna Goldsworthy, Director
of the Centre for Suburban Studies, is the third speaker at the seminar, and
will discuss gendered representations of suburbia.
Speakers
Claire Codling London Borough of Harrow
Vesna Goldsworthy Centre for Suburban Studies, University of Kingston
Alex Rook The Civic Trust
Discussant
Alison Blunt Queen Mary, University of London
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