FYI

Dear all

The Centre for Urban Resilience and Energy at the University of Manchester is organising a one-day workshop on ‘Energy, austerity, informality: Exploring the everyday politics of urban infrastructure’. The workshop will take place in Manchester on the 21^st of May 2014.

The workshop aims to explore the diverse conceptual debates focusing on the nexus of everyday practices and political action in ‘post-austerity’ urban areas. We hope to open up the space for interrogating the diverse ways in which spaces of informality play a role not only in terms of ameliorating poverty, but sustaining the rhythms of everyday life more generally and contesting the broader political economies of urban austerity. Our broader intention is to start consolidating the diverse epistemic communities working in this field; both via shared debates during and after the event, and by thinking of specific follow-up activities (publications, project applications) that can help build functioning networks.

The workshop has been organised under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society-funded EVENT project, with additional sponsorship by the urban champion at Manchester University’s School of Environment, Education and Development. Other supporters of the event include cities@manchester and the Energy Geographies Working Group of the RGS-IBG.

The list of confirmed speakers includes: Dr. Daniel Knight (Durham University), Dr. Lucie Middlemiss (Leeds University), Dr. Nikoleta Jones (Open University), Professor Stefan Bouzarovski (Manchester University), and Dr. Yannis Kalianos (CRESC).

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

There is no fee for the event, but the places are limited. If interested, please contact Dr. Saska Petrova.

Best wishes