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Apologies for cross posting; Please reply to Dr Vicky Simpson: [log in to unmask] Local action in the face of dangerous climate change and resource constraints: a two year ESRC-funded seminar series. Seminar Three: "Reproducing City-Regions" 19th and 20th July in Manchester Speakers include: Kevin Anderson, Tyndall Centre, University of Manchester, UK. Andy Jonas, University of Hull, UK Timothy W. Luke, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Anthony G. Bigio, The World Bank Mark Goodwin, University of Exeter, UK Harriet Bulkeley, University of Durham, UK Rationale for the seminar series: For the past twenty or thirty years local economies have been having to cope with long term structural changes associated with the decline of manufacturing and the growth of the new service and ‘knowledge’ economies This restructuring process is now largely complete, and given that there has been a long period of uninterrupted economic growth in the UK since the mid-1990s, seemingly there is a consensus about the way forward for local economies. The current ‘taken for granted’ local economic development paradigm focuses on: place marketing, events and festivals (Manchester Olympics, Liverpool Capital of Culture): infrastructure and communications development; developing the local economy’s specific advantage within the global division of labour (generally in the UK, within the ‘knowledge’ economy); and focussing on culture and the ‘creative classes’ as the new drivers for growth. However, this new consensus, while a refreshing alternative to backward looking approaches that seemed to want to preserve a romanticised past based on often exploitative and environmentally unsustainable manufacturing, nevertheless pays too little attention to either social justice or sustainability. The consensus seems utopian in its prescriptions for what can be achieved through the globalised knowledge economy. This as yet uncontested paradigm takes no cognisance of two of the major threats that all local economies will have to deal with over the next twenty years: climate change, leading to extremes of and greater instabilities of weather, or economic activities which fit current climatic conditions becoming no longer viable; the end of the era of cheap and plentiful oil, with the knock on that will have for carbon-fuelled economies, cheap transport, less long-distance tourism, and the need to focus more on local production of that which can be produced locally. Rationale for the third seminar: Contemporary city-regions are the predominant sites of resource consumption and the production of waste. Complex socio-technical networks provide the sinews through which cities ‘metabolise’ essential resources in production systems, communications and logistics networks and consumption in buildings. But the metabolism of the city-region - its wider political ecologies and the relations with essential production and consumption systems - have not been a focus for mainstream urban studies. Instead debates about the economy and governance of the city have largely been separate from debates about the ecology and technology of the city. Yet a period of rapid climate change and increasing resource constraint now means that we must look at the relations between ecology, economy, governance, society and technology in new ways. The challenge is to critically and reflexively examine how ecological constraints may re-shape our own conceptual understanding of the city and what this understanding might means for the practices and priorities of urban studies and the future development of the city-region. There are three key themes: 1. Securing the ‘Material’ Reproduction of the City-Region? The first theme focuses on how major-regions can materially ensure their future in a period of climate change and resource constraint. Key questions How do cities ensure they have sufficient and reliable access to power and water? How can city-regions reshape their socio-technical networks to mitigate against climate change? What can cities do to adapt themselves to change climate, flooding and vulnerability? Do cities become more autonomous and self-reliant or do they become more externally dependent and trade carbon? 2. Guaranteeing the ‘Socio-Economic’ Reproduction of the City-Regions? The second theme focuses on the issues involved in the socio-economic reproduction of city-regions within new resource constraints. Key questions include: How does the concept of the economy change with greater focus on resource constraint? Can cities maintain existing economies alternatively are limits placed on growth or is green growth prioritised? How do urban/regional leaders see the future in terms of sustainability fixes? Where is experimentation happening and why (and what's not happening and why)? What might 'entrepreneurial' city-region management look like in an era of resource constraint? What do these fixes mean for social justice? Are new forms of uneven spatial development created go-ahead city-regions go it alone? 3. Reproducing the ‘Uneven Development’ of City-Regions? The final theme focuses on city-regions differential capacity and adaptability to these challenges. Key questions include: Does an ecologically informed division of labour emerge that challenges the established urban hierarchy? Are some cities more able to gather resources and technology to guarantee their futures? Can certain city-regions go it alone, going beyond national regulation and disembedding themselves from the constraints of national/regional modes of regulation? What difference does the national regulatory context make? How do city-regions develop the capacity to act? What's the balance between collaboration and competition in terms of the partnerships needed for experimentation? The seminar is free, but places are limited. Please book by returning the booking form at: http://www.liv.ac.uk/geography/seminars/seminarthree.htm A limited number of travel bursaries is available for postgraduates, post-docs without their own sources of support, and the community and voluntary sectors. Available on a first come, first served basis. Peter North Department of Geography University of Liverpool