Title: Whose diversity? Race, space, and the European City
Date: Friday, October 3rd 10.00-11.00
Venue: Urbarium (P114), Porthania
Yliopistonkatu 3, Helsinki
Abstract: European cities have increasingly highlighted diversity as a marker of their progressive status. A significant field of research argues that “super-diverse” neighborhoods exemplify an increasing acceptance of ethnic and racial difference within urban space. However, contemporary manifestations of urban diversity cannot be easily disentangled from the Eurocentric colonial legacy that underlies racial and spatial imaginaries. The growing influence of Far Right political ideas has heightened existing tensions between European urban planning, legacies of colonial governmentality, and the ongoing devaluation of ethnic minority identities. In this talk I consider how white spatial imaginaries have historically underpinned ways of producing urban space, linking historical practices to contemporary policies, whereby racialized narratives have implicitly and explicitly blamed minorities for urban decline. Finally, I turn to how ethnic minority and marginalized spatial imaginaries open up new forms of understanding city building that can challenge racialized discrimination and inequality.
Yasminah Beebeejaun is a Professor of Urban Politics and Planning at Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. Her work is focused on questions of equality in urban planning and policy from an anti-racist and feminist perspective. She is one of the founding editors of the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City published by the Urban Affairs Association and Taylor and Francis.