Housing justice and urban planning during pandemic times: A DPU dialogue with prof Raquel Rolnik

The second event of the ‘(Post)Pandemic Planning in the South(s)’ centres around questions of housing justice and urban planning during pandemic times. It will be framed by a presentation from Prof Raquel Rolnik regarding her experience of leading housing research at LabCidade, Sao Paulo, during the pandemic, and will unfold as a conversation between Raquel and the DPU’s Prof Adriana Allen and Dr Paroj Banerjee.  

During the discussion, Raquel’s recent research into territorial mobilisations and the role of planning in the biopolitical urban governance of Brazilian cities, will be brought into dialogue with Adriana’s experiences as President of Habitat International Coalition and Paroj’s emerging work on urban unsafety and houselessness in India during the pandemic. Closing with a chaired audience Q&A, the event promises a fascinating window into the ways in which the pandemic has served to simultaneously reveal, accelerate, and transform today’s housing question(s). 

Chaired by 
Prof Adriana Allen, Professor of Development Planning and Urban Sustainability at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL, and President of Habitat International Coalition (HIC). (@allenDPUadriana)

Speaker
Prof Raquel Rolnik, Full professor Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo Universidade de São paulo and co- coordinator of LabCidade - Right to the city Laboratory (@raquelrolnik)

Respondent
Dr Paroj Banerjee (FHEA), Lecturer (Teaching) and Joint Programme Leader of the Development Administration and Planning (DAP) at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL.  

Reflections by:

Pierre Arnold - Project Manager at UrbaMonde - France; Twitter: @urbaMonde
Camila Cociña: PhD Development Planning and MSc Building and Urban Design in Development by UCL; Research Fellow at Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW) programme; Twitter: @camilacocina
Barbara Lipietz: Associate Professor, Development Planning Unit; Vice Dean International, the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, UCL. coordinator of the "Urban transformations" research cluster; Twitter: @BLipVid

About the (Post)Pandemic Planning in the South(s) series

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new imperatives for the field of Development Planning. As a response, last year DPU proposed a webinar and blog series around ‘Post COVID-19 Urban Futures' as an outward facing space for reflection with scholars, practitioners, students, and alumni on the impacts the pandemic is having on the cities in all spheres of life. The question we used to connect all the sessions and written contributions revolved around: Are we ready to imagine a better post COVID world?  

Find out more on the series webpage.