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CONTESTED CITIES research network upcoming events * Wednesday 27 August 2014, RGS/IBG, London * Monday 1st, Tuesday 2nd September 2014, Leeds Contested Cities (http://www.contested-cities.net) is an international network of action, investigation and exchange of researchers from eight European and Latin American universities located in Madrid, Leeds, Mexico City, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, funded by the EU between 2012 and 2016. We research the processes and consequences of neoliberal urban politics in Europe and Latin America, focusing on gentrification and strategies of resistance and re-appropriation of urban space by counter-hegemonic social movements. We have organised the following public events as part of a wider UK gathering of Contested Cities researchers in Leeds in the first week of September. RGS/IBG Panel: "Co-producing urban contestation across the world: a roundtable with academics and social movement activists" Wednesday 27 August 2014, London This panel will bring academics and activists together to discuss how knowledge and action are being and can be co-produced in relation to specific aspects of urban contestation including struggles against gentrification and displacement and the privatisation of housing, municipal services and urban space. Panellists will showcase specific examples and experiences of co-production and collaboration in different cities across the world and critically reflect on key issues of co-production, power dynamics and relations, academic and class privilege, and neoliberalising educational contexts. Details: Session 4, 4.50pm at the RSG-IBG International Conference, London, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, Room 122, Imperial College, South Kensington campus More information on speakers: http://contested-cities.net/CCleeds/upcoming-event-contested-cities-royal-geographical-society-conference-london/ "Contested Cities of the global south: urban struggles against dispossession and displacement in South Africa, India and Latin America" Monday 1 September 2014, Leeds A key battleground of urban contestation in the Global South are the 'slums' or 'shantytowns' of major cities and metropolitan areas. The staging of the football World Cup in South Africa (2010) and Brazil (2014) has highlighted the conflicts over urban space and the right to the city between capitalist urbanisation in the guise of mega-events and urban slum dwellers. To further the comparative work of the Contested Cities network, we have invited Dr Ayona Datta (University of Leeds) and Dr Richard Pithouse (Rhodes University, South Africa) to talk about the current struggles of shack and slum dwellers in India and South Africa and their significance for cities, politics, and the wider social relationships that underpin them. Researchers from Contested Cities will then reflect on the Indian and South African contexts in relation to Latin America. Details: Talk starts at 5pm in the East Building Lecture Theatre, School of Geography, University of Leeds "Contested Cities Film Festival" Tuesday, 2 September, 2014, Leeds In collaboration with the Leeds Social and Environmental Justice Action Network, the Contested Cities network is hosting a film festival at Wharf Chambers in Leeds. This festival builds on our previous photography competition and exhibition held last year, and is part of a larger examination of the use of audio-visual methods in the study of urban contestation. The film event will be open to the general public. Featured Films: Future Suspended (Ross Domoney, Greece/ UK) Dear Mandela (Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza, South Africa) Capital (Maxim Pozdorovkin & Joe Bender, Kazakhstan / USA) Also proudly showing: Watchmen: Ejercicio 1 and To Police the Police: Ejercicio 2; Negocios Muertos; Preludes; Espacios Protegidos; Upon a Crocus Cloth; Concrete Heart Land; Ladrillo por Ladrillo; Borde / Fronteras; 3 Guadalajara Shorts; Ocupação Esperança;Destapiadas; Creativity and the Capitalist City (excerpt); City forgotten: The fate of India's small cities Details: Films start at 7pm and end at 11:30 pm, Wharf Chambers, 23-25 Wharf Street, Leeds, LS2 7EQ, www.wharfchambers.org<http://www.wharfchambers.org> *************** If you want more information about this network email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> From the 1st to the 5th of September around 30 Contested Cities researchers will meet at the School of Geography, University of Leeds. The sessions are mainly internal working groups but if you would like meet any of the researchers please get in touch. There is list of researchers here: http://contested-cities.net/integrantes/ Some of them are staying a couple of more weeks in Leeds. *******************