Kurt Iveson – författare

With billions now living in cities across an increasingly urban planet, hopes for the future depend on the power of ordinary people to shape urban life. In an era plagued by intensifying inequality, authoritarianism and climate change, residents of cities are facing crises on multiple fronts. In response, people are coming together to find solutions. What does it take for them to change their city for good?People Power in Cities analyzes the strategies people are using to fight for social and climate justice and achieve a greater say in how their cities are run. Highlighting the voices of organizers, activists, thinkers, and movements on the ground, Amanda Tattersall and Kurt Iveson reveal complex ecologies of people struggling for rights to home, dignity, and freedom. They draw from examples around the world, such as the fluid 'be water' tactics used by crowds in Hong Kong, micro-utopia squats in Cape Town, and electoral reclamation of institutions in Barcelona. Unpacking the advantages and limitations of each strategy, Tattersall and Iveson argue against seeing any one as a 'silver bullet' to the dilemmas faced by urban movements. Instead they explore the potential for complementary combinations of strategies like advocacy, protest, organizing, prefiguration and running for office that are too often seen in competition. The result is a people power framework that unlocks opportunities for urban movements everywhere seeking to create change. An essential guide for researchers and organizers alike, People Power in Cities makes sense of the dynamic, interconnected, and insurgent urban moment, helping us seize the opportunities for democratic experimentation available in our cities.

With billions now living in cities across an increasingly urban planet, hopes for the future depend on the power of ordinary people to shape urban life. In an era plagued by intensifying inequality, authoritarianism and climate change, residents of cities are facing crises on multiple fronts. In response, people are coming together to find solutions. What does it take for them to change their city for good?People Power in Cities analyzes the strategies people are using to fight for social and climate justice and achieve a greater say in how their cities are run. Highlighting the voices of organizers, activists, thinkers, and movements on the ground, Amanda Tattersall and Kurt Iveson reveal complex ecologies of people struggling for rights to home, dignity, and freedom. They draw from examples around the world, such as the fluid 'be water' tactics used by crowds in Hong Kong, micro-utopia squats in Cape Town, and electoral reclamation of institutions in Barcelona. Unpacking the advantages and limitations of each strategy, Tattersall and Iveson argue against seeing any one as a 'silver bullet' to the dilemmas faced by urban movements. Instead they explore the potential for complementary combinations of strategies like advocacy, protest, organizing, prefiguration and running for office that are too often seen in competition. The result is a people power framework that unlocks opportunities for urban movements everywhere seeking to create change. An essential guide for researchers and organizers alike, People Power in Cities makes sense of the dynamic, interconnected, and insurgent urban moment, helping us seize the opportunities for democratic experimentation available in our cities.

A timely new look at coexisting without assimilating in multicultural citiesIf city life is a “being together of strangers,” what forms of being together should we strive for in cities with ethnic and racial diversity? Everyday Equalities seeks evidence of progressive political alternatives to racialized inequality that are emerging from everyday encounters in Los Angeles, Melbourne, Sydney, and Toronto-settler colonial cities that, established through efforts to dispossess and eliminate indigenous societies, have been destinations for waves of immigrants from across the globe ever since. Everyday Equalities finds such alternatives being developed as people encounter one another in the process of making a home, earning a living, moving around the city, and forming collective actions or communities. Here four leading scholars in critical urban geography come together to deliver a powerful and cohesive message about the meaning of equality in contemporary cities. Drawing on both theoretical reflection and urban ethnographic research, they offer the formulation “being together in difference as equals” as a normative frame to reimagine the meaning and pursuit of equality in today’s urban multicultures. As the examples in Everyday Equalities indicate, much emotional labor, combined with a willingness to learn from each other, negotiate across differences, and agitate for change goes into constructing environments that foster being together in difference as equals. Importantly, the authors argue, a commitment to equality is not only a hope for a future city but also a way of being together in the present.

A timely new look at coexisting without assimilating in multicultural citiesIf city life is a “being together of strangers,” what forms of being together should we strive for in cities with ethnic and racial diversity? Everyday Equalities seeks evidence of progressive political alternatives to racialized inequality that are emerging from everyday encounters in Los Angeles, Melbourne, Sydney, and Toronto-settler colonial cities that, established through efforts to dispossess and eliminate indigenous societies, have been destinations for waves of immigrants from across the globe ever since. Everyday Equalities finds such alternatives being developed as people encounter one another in the process of making a home, earning a living, moving around the city, and forming collective actions or communities. Here four leading scholars in critical urban geography come together to deliver a powerful and cohesive message about the meaning of equality in contemporary cities. Drawing on both theoretical reflection and urban ethnographic research, they offer the formulation “being together in difference as equals” as a normative frame to reimagine the meaning and pursuit of equality in today’s urban multicultures. As the examples in Everyday Equalities indicate, much emotional labor, combined with a willingness to learn from each other, negotiate across differences, and agitate for change goes into constructing environments that foster being together in difference as equals. Importantly, the authors argue, a commitment to equality is not only a hope for a future city but also a way of being together in the present.

Planning theory and practice has become more conscious in recent times of the need to cater for a diverse range of needs and preferences. But there has been less clarity about what goals and objectives should inform planning for such diversity. In this important new book Ruth Fincher and Kurt Iveson identify three distinct working principles of planning for diversity: redistribution, recognition and encounter. Each principle is the subject of a pair of chapters. The first explaining the principle and the second showcasing and comparing efforts to shape cities according to it, drawing on relevant examples from around the world.Planning for Diversity is the ideal introduction to the issues that surround diversity and planning and provides a stimulating new line of advance for reducing inequality and working towards 'just diversity' in cities.Ruth Fincher is Professor of Geography at the University of Melbourne, Australia.Kurt Iveson is Lecturer in Urban Geography at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Planning theory and practice has become more conscious in recent times of the need to cater for a diverse range of needs and preferences. But there has been less clarity about what goals and objectives should inform planning for such diversity. In this important new book Ruth Fincher and Kurt Iveson identify three distinct working principles of planning for diversity: redistribution, recognition and encounter. Each principle is the subject of a pair of chapters. The first explaining the principle and the second showcasing and comparing efforts to shape cities according to it, drawing on relevant examples from around the world.Planning for Diversity is the ideal introduction to the issues that surround diversity and planning and provides a stimulating new line of advance for reducing inequality and working towards 'just diversity' in cities.Ruth Fincher is Professor of Geography at the University of Melbourne, Australia.Kurt Iveson is Lecturer in Urban Geography at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Publics and the City investigates struggles over the making of urban publics, considering how the production, management and regulation of 'public spaces' has emerged as a problem for both urban politics and urban theory. Advances a new framework for considering the diverse spatialities of publicness in relation to the cityArgues that a city's contribution to the making of publics goes beyond the provision of places for public gatheringExamines a series of detailed case studiesLooks at the relationship between urbanism, public spheres, and democracy