Tuesday October 18, 6pm – 7pm at Peak Lecture Theatre
Speaker: Professor Patricia Burke Wood, Professor in Human Geography, York University, Toronto, Canada
Drawing on the work of Lauren Berlant, Cathy Cohen, Audrey Wollen, Johanna Hedva and Davina Cooper, Patricia offers a critical urban theory of politics and citizenship that is grounded in the city as it is inhabited, particularly the lived realities of invisible people who want the impossible.
This approach recognizes the double-edged sword of oppression and emancipation that the city offers marginalized, individuals and communities and emphasizes the need for an intersectional approach in which diversity does not merely make radical politics more inclusive, but actively disempowers hierarchies. This politics starts with a rational, emotional and embodied urban citizen, and produces a conception of politics and justice that embraces a wider range of acts of resistance and creative transformation. It also recognizes the “impossibility” of certain forms of politics and the necessity of invisible acts. Far from being trivial or not even “real politics,” these acts of citizenship are a form of constitutionalism. This theory is more anarchist than Marxian in its temporal and spatial frames and is intended to complement, without replacing, more narrow political economy approaches to the city.
This event is free and open to all. For further information, please contact Dr Richard White (richard.white@shu.ac.uk / 0114 225 899).