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Civil Society & The City
7:00 - 8:30pm 30th November 2004
VENUE: Room G.02, Bartlett School of Architecture, 22 Gordon Street,
University College London
Streetmap:
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=529640&y=182417&z=1&sv=529750,182250&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf
TICKETS: £8 and £6
Lord Rogers used to say that 'people make cities, but cities make citizens,'
the implication being that cities somehow exert a kind of humanising
influence over us all. Recently, however, we have been led to believe that
the reverse is true.. that cities are in some ways dehumanising.
What used to be the positive spin about city life - the speed, the noise,
the bright lights, the clutter, the excess, the congestion - are now
portrayed as negative and anti-social aspects of city life. Anonymity, the
very essence of the metropolitan experience, is frowned upon as anathema to
the new desire for sociable cities. But is the urban renaissance leading to
greater tolerance or greater intolerance? And is it sanitising the urban
experience?
From bans on flyposting, smoking and litter to restrictions on traffic, and
youth curfews - from behaviour modification to extensions of the criminal
law - is the sanitised city stifling what real city life is meant to be?
This discussion seeks to examine the benefits and dangers of reinventing the
city as an exercise in citizenship and the communal experience.
An illustrious panel will try to unravel whether the modern demands of the
urban renaissance is simply a cynical attempt at political engagement or is
it a genuine attempt to build a better society. Either way, will it work?
SPEAKERS:
Ben Rogers, associate, Institute of Public Policy Research and author of
'Lonely Citizens: Report of the Working Party on Active Citizenship'
Dolan Cummings, society director of the Institute of Ideas and author of 'In
Search Of Sesame Street: Policing Civility for the 21st Century'
David Petch, commissioner,. Independent Police Complaints Commission
Rob Allen, director, Rethinking Crime and Punishment
Tim Donovan, political editor, BBC London
chair: Austin Williams, director Future Cities Project and technical editor,
Architects' Journal
For further information and booking contact: the Future Cities Project at
[log in to unmask] or go to http://www.futurecities.org.uk/
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Please make cheques payable to 'Transport Research Group' and forward to:
Austin Williams,
c/o 151 Rosebery Avenue,
London EC1R 4GB
(NB: The Transport Research Group is a sister organisation to the Future
Cities Project)
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Louise Every
Researcher, Sustainability
Institute for Public Policy Research
London WC2E 7RA
www.ippr.org/sustainability
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