Shaping pathways to urban equality:  Planning methodologies for collective strategic action   

About this event

Over the past few decades, the challenges of rapid urban change and unjust urbanisation have garnered extensive attention from urban scholars, practitioners, and policymakers worldwide. The DPU has been at the forefront centring urban equality in revised theorisation and practices of planning in rapidly changing contexts, significantly influencing international development policy and planning. At the DPU, Prof. Caren Levy has been a pivotal figure in this endeavour, shaping the teaching, research, and practice in these fields – within the DPU and beyond. Her work challenges the de-politicization of policy and planning in post-colonial international geographies, grounding her efforts in the principles of social justice and equality. Throughout her career and her leading roles at the DPU, she has pushed boundaries of planning theory and practice, both professionally and institutionally. She has forged numerous local and international collaborations supporting and working with various urban institutions, local, national and international development agencies and community-driven initiatives, including the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) and local organisations like CCI (Tanzania) and the Alliance (Mumbai); United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), and bi-lateral aid organisations like SIDA and SDC; universities like CUJAE (CUBA), Makarere (Uganda) and IIHS (India),  among many others. Over the past few decades, she has enabled and helped build the capacities and sensibilities of many generations of practitioners and scholars to become agents of change to advance more just forms of urbanisation and gender equality.  

In this session, we will celebrate Prof. Caren Levy’s contributions to the planning discipline and the community of planning scholars, practitioners and educators. We will focus on some of the key issues she championed throughout her career, such as gender justice and urban equality across and within multiple organisation and sectors; strategic action planning in partnerships with equivalence with and between communities, the public and private sectors; operationalising transport justice and urban equality that challenges the foundations of traditional transport planning; and her innovative approach towards transdisciplinary co-learning and knowledge co-production.  

The event will feature speakers from among the staff of the DPU and colleagues from around the world who have worked closely with Caren over the years, reflecting on their experiences and the impactful work they have done together. 

DPU staff and students are invited to join for drinks and a reception from 7pm to 9pm at the UCL South Cloisters, following the DPU70 event celebrating Caren Levy's contributions to the DPU.

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Chair

Azadeh Mashayekhi, Lecturer, Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU), UCL 

Speakers

Julio D Dávila, Professor of Urban Policy and International Development, Bartlett DPU 

Alexandre Frediani, Principal Research, Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) 

Barbara Lipietz, Professor of Urban Development Planning, The Bartlett DPU 

Daniel Oviedo, Associate Professor, Bartlett DPU 

Aromar Revi, Director of the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS) 

Claudy Vouhé, Gender Expert, Gender Expert; L’Etre Ègale 

Julian Walker, Professor of Inclusive Social Policy, Bartlett DPU, UCL

Tim Wickson, Lecturer, Bartlett DPU, UCL