Asymmetric Urbanism
Can communities push back against shrinking freedoms? Explore how local groups resist power and what tools still work.
In this episode, Beth and Tom are joined by Ryan Bellinson, researcher/civil servant living in Portland, Oregon, US, to discuss how residents and community groups can mobilise their power to resist democratic backsliding.
From Minneapolis to Portland federal immigration enforcement agents have been deploying hostile tactics to identify and seek to deport migrants, even those of legal status. Meanwhile federal programmes of support from housing to environmental protection are being slashed in part to finance massive increases in defence spending. The asymmetry between authoritarian and progressive forces is increasing. In this context, what powers and levers remain for grassroots groups and public bodies to push back?
On the radar, they discuss:
- Whether implementing Palantir's federal data platform in Sheffield could exacerbate health inequalities
- What the Hillsborough Law has in common with ritualistic dunking in Trento, Italy
- Food security in the context of the closure of the straits of Hormuz
- Whether 'adopting' cities marks a new approach to post-war aid & reconstruction in Mykolaiv, Ukraine
- Pope versus Trump: appeals to authority and the role of religion in African cities
- Real estate in and around New York - what the media does and doesn't cover
Ryan Bellinson is a former PhD student of the University of Sheffield and is now Community Innovation Strategist at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. He also co-leads the new , working with Dark Matter Labs, and is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Cities, Climate and Innovation at University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.
