UGoveRN

On April 8th, UGoveRN hosted an inspiring brainstorming session with our new member Dr. Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz from Boston University. Dr. Yesim Sungu-Eryilmaz captivated the audience with her presentation titled "Who Benefits? The Spatial Context of Negotiated Community Benefits from Development Projects in Boston." Dr. Danielle Chevalier (Leiden University) served as discussant for this session. The session demonstrated UGoveRN's strength of bringing together researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds and providing a platform for them to discuss their ongoing projects, and share new perspectives and valuable insights.

UGoveRN members Danielle Chevalier and Michiel Stapper were among the special issue editors for a new special issue titled "Legal Pluralism in the Urban Realm". Published in the journal Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis, this special issue is rich with valuable insights aligned with UGoveRN's research theme of 'law and policy', which focuses on understanding how law and policy influence and regulate human behaviour within urban governance. Read more about the special issue here: https://lnkd.in/eSj2B3hu

Last week, UGoveRN organised an event together with Provincie Noord-Holland to explore the complexities of provincial governance by looking at energy and climate policy. In our session, we explored the role of provinces in complex multiscalar governance systems and discussed the specific challenges they encounter in their day-to-day operations. Additionally, we explored interesting insights from the academic literature on the topic and identified opportunities for future collaboration. One key takeaway from our discussion is the importance of these types of conversations for policymakers and academics alike. With the right approach, such discussions can play a crucial role in generating knowledge that leads to practical solutions. Thanks to Tania Guerrero (Provincie Noord-Holland) and to Sara Özoğul (University of Groningen - Faculty of Spatial Sciences), Tuna Tasan-Kok and Andre Legarza (University of Amsterdam) for organising this session.

Watch our new UGoveRN webcast on #entrepreneurship, #privatisation, #contracts and #risks in urban governance. This webcast is part of the project "Investigating the entrepreneurial state in contractual governance" by Champaka Rajagopal and Tuna Tasan-Kok. The project is a collaboration between the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development of the University of Amsterdam, and the Urban School of Sciences Po, and is generously funded by the University of Amsterdam's Centre for Urban Studies. https://lnkd.in/ePwgxU2b

In this seminar, Tania Guerrero, Ebru Kurt Özman and João Tonucci reflect on governance in the peripheries with cases from Mexico, Turkey and Brazil. Current approaches to urban governance, often originated in northern contexts, tend to focus on institutionalized actors and formal processes. In contrast, this seminar explored governance in and from the peripheries, in line with recent calls to decenter urban studies and to acknowledge a set of actors, spaces, and processes relegated to the geographical and theoretical periphery. Watch the seminar recording on UGoveRN's YouTube channel: https://lnkd.in/eymCXTa3

📢 New blog post by Danielle Chevalier on a 'just city' through procedural justice and its link to spatial governance! Danielle, an expert in procedural justice, explores various interpretations across disciplines and uncovers an intriguing gap between a socio-legal perspective and how procedural justice is viewed in planning. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/ei8Eqhmm

We just completed an informative webinar focusing on the important topics of landownership and housing affordability! This webinar was a collaborative effort between UGoveRN and the Geodata for Real Estate Research group at the Avignon Université. Four groups of researchers shared their insights and reflections on the central question: "How do various forms of land ownership influence housing affordability?" The webinar encouraged us to rethink our research methodologies and consider diverse perspectives in comprehending the complexities of land governance, property ownership, and real estate dynamics. The recording of the webinar will be made available shortly. #webinar #housingmarket #housingaffordability #land #realestate

Meet Elisha Aaron, one of UGoveRN's current apprentices: "As one of the 2024 UGoveRN apprentices, my tasks include helping to organize the 2024 International Day, contributing to UGoveRN’s various communication channels and social media accounts, and writing blog posts for the website. I will also assist in hosting UGoveRN seminars. My research with UGoveRN will focus on densification in Amsterdam, seeking to understand how the city, despite its fragmented governance environment, attempts to leverage the transformation of urban space to create more, allegedly affordable, housing. To this end, I will be conducting a literature review on densification scholarship. As a master’s student in Urban Studies, my interests relate particularly to urban governance challenges, and how market-driven policy approaches inform climate and economic policy."

📢 New publication alert: Learn more about João Tonucci's new publication on informality through the state in Brazil, published in the journal Urban Studies! https://lnkd.in/eVDFZi7G

In this engaging blog post, Tuna Tasan-Kok critically examines the governance challenges entwined with the realm of branded urbanism. "Branded urbanism refers to the investments and developments made by companies within cities and urban areas, where they prominently feature their own consumer brands. Originally, it began as fragmented private sector investments in project development areas aimed at enhancing public services by using pseudo-public spaces or privately owned public spaces. However, the trend has now evolved to prominently showcase consumer brands in the development of urban areas." Read more: https://lnkd.in/eebdfG38